Pressure-driven filling of liquid metal in closed-end microchannels

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Ganan-Calvo, Alfonso M
Guo, Wei
Xi, Heng-Dong
Teo, Adrian JT
Nam-Trung, Nguyen
Tan, Say Hwa
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2018
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Abstract

We observe unsteady flow behavior of liquid metal during a pressure-driven injection process into a closed-ended polydimethylsiloxane microchannel. Constant pressure is applied at the inlet to allow eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn) to completely fill the porous microchannels. In contrast to open channels [M. D. Dickey et al., Adv. Funct. Mater. 18, 1097 (2008)], the flow exhibits a complex unsteady behavior with sudden random length jumps and time stops. However, with appropriate formulation of a suitable mathematical model with the system using (i) the permeability of polydimethylsiloxane to air, (ii) previous descriptions of the nature of the EGaIn surface oxide layer, and (iii) a key probabilistic approach, we show that the average quantities defining the quantumlike flow can be accurately predicted. The proposed probabilistic formulation provides for the first time a description of the dynamics of the surface oxide layer, the breaking and healing characteristic times when EGaIn is driven in a microchannel. Importantly, this work provides a better understanding of complex flow behavior and lays the foundation for future work.

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Physical Review E

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98

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© 2018 American Physical Society. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.

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Fluid mechanics and thermal engineering

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Mathematical sciences

Physical sciences

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