Type
ArticleAuthors
Setu, Siti AminahDullens, Roel P A
Hernández-Machado, Aurora
Pagonabarraga, Ignacio
Aarts, Dirk G A L
Ledesma-Aguilar, Rodrigo
KAUST Grant Number
KUK-C1-013-04Date
2015-06-15Online Publication Date
2015-06-15Print Publication Date
2015-12Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/596819
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Understanding fluid dynamics under extreme confinement, where device and intrinsic fluid length scales become comparable, is essential to successfully develop the coming generations of fluidic devices. Here we report measurements of advancing fluid fronts in such a regime, which we dub superconfinement. We find that the strong coupling between contact-line friction and geometric confinement gives rise to a new stability regime where the maximum speed for a stable moving front exhibits a distinctive response to changes in the bounding geometry. Unstable fronts develop into drop-emitting jets controlled by thermal fluctuations. Numerical simulations reveal that the dynamics in superconfined systems is dominated by interfacial forces. Henceforth, we present a theory that quantifies our experiments in terms of the relevant interfacial length scale, which in our system is the intrinsic contact-line slip length. Our findings show that length-scale overlap can be used as a new fluid-control mechanism in strongly confined systems.Citation
Setu SA, Dullens RPA, Hernández-Machado A, Pagonabarraga I, Aarts DGAL, et al. (2015) Superconfinement tailors fluid flow at microscales. Nat Comms 6: 7297. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8297.Sponsors
We are indebted to Denis Bartolo for a critical reading of this manuscript. R.L.-A. thanks Sumesh Thampi for useful discussions, and Somerville College (Fulford Fellowships), Marie Curie Actions (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2010 no. 273406) and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) award no. KUK-C1-013-04 for financial support. A.H.-M. acknowledges partial support from MINECO (Spain) under project FIS 2013-47949-C2-1-P and DURSI 2014 SGR878. I.P. acknowledges financial support from MINECO (Spain) and DURSI under projects FIS2011-22603 and 2009SGR-634, respectively. S.A.S. acknowledges financial support from Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), and D.G.A.L.A. from EPSRC grant EP/H035362/1.Publisher
Springer NatureJournal
Nature CommunicationsPubMed ID
26073752PubMed Central ID
PMC4490407ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1038/ncomms8297
Scopus Count
Collections
Publications Acknowledging KAUST Support
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit
Related articles
- Inertial forces affect fluid front displacement dynamics in a pore-throat network model.
- Authors: Moebius F, Or D
- Issue date: 2014 Aug
- Stick-Slip to Sliding Transition of Dynamic Contact Lines under AC Electrowetting.
- Authors: 't Mannetje DJ, Mugele F, van den Ende D
- Issue date: 2013 Dec 3
- High throughput single-cell and multiple-cell micro-encapsulation.
- Authors: Lagus TP, Edd JF
- Issue date: 2012 Jun 15
- Speed of fast and slow rupture fronts along frictional interfaces.
- Authors: Trømborg JK, Sveinsson HA, Thøgersen K, Scheibert J, Malthe-Sørenssen A
- Issue date: 2015 Jul
- Interfacial jumps and pressure bursts during fluid displacement in interacting irregular capillaries.
- Authors: Moebius F, Or D
- Issue date: 2012 Jul 1