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Related Concept Videos

Capillarity in Fluid01:19

Capillarity in Fluid

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Capillarity describes the movement of liquid in small spaces without external forces acting on it. The capillarity is driven by surface tension and adhesive interactions between the liquid and surrounding solid surfaces. This effect is often seen in narrow tubes, porous materials, and fine particles.
Surface tension is crucial to capillarity. It results from cohesive forces between liquid molecules at the liquid-air boundary, forming a skin that resists external forces. When the capillary tube...
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Vesicle budding is orchestrated by distinct cytosolic proteins such as adaptor proteins, coat proteins, and GTPases. To initiate vesicle budding, membrane-bending proteins containing crescent-shaped BAR domains bind to the lipid heads in the bilayer and distort the membrane to form a protein-coated vesicle bud. Adaptors proteins such as AP2 for clathrin-coated vesicles can nucleate on the deformed membrane. Finally, coat proteins such as clathrin or COPI and COPII assemble into a coat forming...
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Steady, Laminar Flow Between Parallel Plates01:17

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Understanding steady, laminar flow between parallel plates is essential for analyzing and designing flow in narrow rectangular channels, commonly found in various water conveyance and drainage systems. The Navier-Stokes equations govern fluid motion and are generally challenging to solve due to their nonlinearity. However, simplifications are possible in certain cases, like the steady laminar flow between parallel plates. For this scenario, we assume steady, incompressible, laminar flow.
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Rise of Liquid in a Capillary Tube01:18

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When very thin cylindrical tubes, called capillaries, are dipped in a liquid, the liquid rises or falls in the tube compared to the surrounding liquid. This phenomenon is called capillary action. Capillary action occurs due to the combination of two opposing forces: the cohesive forces of the liquid, which cause it to stick to itself and form a rounded shape, and the adhesive forces between the liquid and the walls of the container, which cause the liquid to be attracted to the container walls.
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Hagen-Poiseuille flow describes a viscous fluid's steady, incompressible flow through a cylindrical tube with a constant radius R. This flow profile is often applied to understand fluid transport in narrow channels, such as capillaries. It serves as a foundational example of laminar flow. In this model, cylindrical coordinates (r,θ,z) are used to describe the radial (r), angular (θ), and axial (z) dimensions within the tube. For Hagen-Poiseuille flow, the velocity profile is...
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Couette Flow01:22

Couette Flow

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Couette flow represents the flow of fluid between two parallel plates, with one plate fixed and the other moving with a constant velocity. This configuration allows for a simplified analysis using the Navier-Stokes equations, which govern fluid motion under conditions of viscosity and incompressibility. For Couette flow, the assumptions include a steady, laminar, incompressible flow with a zero-pressure gradient in the flow direction. This flow type is beneficial for understanding shear-driven...
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Fabrication and Visualization of Capillary Bridges in Slit Pore Geometry
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Capillary-driven horseshoe vortex forming around a micro-pillar.

K Ozawa1, H Nakamura1, K Shimamura1

  • 1Division of Mechanical Engineering, School of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 278-8510 Chiba, Japan.

Journal of Colloid and Interface Science
|April 2, 2023
PubMed
Summary

Horseshoe vortices form around micro-obstacles in thin-film flow, driven by capillary forces instead of inertia. This discovery in microfluidics offers potential for enhanced mixing in creeping flows.

Keywords:
CapillarityHorseshoe vortexMeniscusMicropillarWetting

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Area of Science:

  • Fluid dynamics
  • Microfluidics
  • Surface science

Background:

  • Horseshoe vortices typically form around large obstacles due to inertia-driven adverse pressure gradients.
  • Textured surfaces with micro-obstacles are used to improve wettability.
  • Microfluidic devices often operate in low Reynolds number (creeping flow) regimes, limiting mixing efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the potential formation of horseshoe vortices in thin-film Stokes flow around micro-obstacles.
  • To explore the application of such flow structures for enhancing mixing in microfluidic devices.

Main Methods:

  • Numerical simulations using Navier-Stokes equations and a volume of fluid multiphase solver.
  • Analysis of wetting dynamics of a liquid film spreading around a 50 μm diameter micro-pillar.

Main Results:

  • A horseshoe vortex structure was observed around the micro-pillar, despite the extremely low Reynolds number.
  • The adverse pressure gradient driving flow reversal was caused by capillary forces, not inertia.
  • The horseshoe vortex became entangled with other vortical structures, creating complex flow with high mixing potential.

Conclusions:

  • Horseshoe vortices can form in microfluidic systems under low Reynolds number conditions, driven by capillary forces.
  • This phenomenon presents opportunities for designing microfluidic devices with enhanced mixing capabilities.