Improved volume-of-fluid (VOF) model for predictions of velocity fields and droplet lengths in microchannels

Accurate measurement of flow in microchannels is imperative to better understand their flow behaviour, which aids in the design of microfluidic devices. In this work, we present an improved VOF model based on smoothing functions that can effectively minimise the issue of spurious velocities, which causes numerical simulations in microchannels to be less accurate. We use the smoothed VOF to simulate the velocity fields and droplet lengths in microchannels and compare the results with experimental data. The results show that the smoothed VOF is able to simulate flow in microchannels more accurately than the standard VOF model. Microchannel simulations using the standard VOF model are less accurate because the spurious velocities produces artificially higher velocity regions in the flow field results. The spurious velocities also induce a higher but non-physical shear stress during the droplet formation process, resulting in droplets forming prematurely with shorter lengths. Hence the smoothed VOF which resolves the issue of spurious velocities is shown to be a more viable tool in predicting the flow in microchannels by means of numerical simulations. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.