title: Periodic droplet formation in chemically patterned microchannels.
abstract: Simulations show that, when a phase-separated binary AB fluid is driven to flow past chemically patterned substrates in a microchannel, the fluid exhibits unique morphological instabilities. For the pattern studied, these instabilities give rise to the simultaneous, periodic formation of monodisperse droplets of A in B and B in A. The system bifurcates between time-independent behavior and different types of regular, nondecaying oscillations in the structural characteristics. The surprisingly complex behavior is observed even in the absence of hydrodynamic interactions and arises from the interplay between the fluid flow and patterned substrate, which introduces nonlinearity into the dynamical system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 15261, USA.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kuksenok
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jasnow
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yeomans
authors.forename: Anna C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Balazs