Microfluidic Crystals: Dynamic Interplay between Rearrangement Waves and Flow

Microfluidic crystals are assemblies of miniature bubbles or drops flowing in channels. We explore here the flow of these crystals, when submitted to a given driving pressure. The flow velocity is linked to the finite number of elements in the channel width, and presents discontinuities when the crystal structure changes. At the transition from one structure to the other original dynamic features appear. The flow can self-regulate itself on a fixed velocity whatever the driving pressure, or, on the contrary, can spontaneously pulsate. All these features are predicted by simply considering the crystal's energy and friction, and looking at the propagation of structure rearrangements. We anticipate these results to improve the control over the structure of dense two-phase flows in microfluidic systems.