Self-propelled Leidenfrost droplets on a heated glycerol pool

The development of contactless sample manipulation for microfluidic purposes has attracted significant attention within the physicochemical fields. Most existing studies focus on the interactions of unheated liquid substrates and on heated/unheated solid substrates. Therefore, the dynamics of droplets on heated liquid pools have yet to be explored. Here, we present an experimental investigation on the levitated and self-propelled droplets on a heated pool. We aim to identify the effect of the pool temperature and the thermophysical properties of droplets on the dynamics of a self-propelled Leidenfrost droplet on a heated pool. The motion of droplets after levitation on the heated pool is visualized. To elucidate the self-propulsion of Leidenfrost droplets, we quantify the thickness of the vapour film between the approaching droplet and the pool surface. Our experimental results show a quantitative agreement with the simple model prediction for self-propelled Leidenfrost droplets. Our results provide deeper physical insights into the dynamics of Leidenfrost droplets on a heated pool for contactless and contamination-free sample manipulation.

Bubble Bursting and Drainage Characteristics at the Free Surface of a Liquid Pool with an Aerosol

When nuclear reactor accidents such as steam generator pipe ruptures or core melting occur, radioactive aerosols will remain in the liquid pools. Bubbles may be generated by boiling or gas injection. Film droplets produced by bubble bursts may entrain radioactive aerosols from the liquid to the air. This long-lasting behavior can produce a considerable amount of aerosols. To evaluate radioactive source terms, many physical quantities related to bubble bursting need to be determined, such as bubble burst position, bubble lifetime, cap film roll-up velocity, and cap film thickness, which are very important parameters that influence the releasing of radioactive aerosols. In this research, the phenomenon of bubble bursting was investigated by visualization. The above parameters were measured. We obtained the lifetime distribution of bubbles under different conditions, and we found that the addition of an aerosol increased the lifetime of the bubbles. By comparing the bubble lifetime to the roll-up velocity and cap thickness, we showed that the increase of the liquid temperature thickened the cap at rupture and the increase of the air temperature thinned the cap. The addition of an aerosol increased the film roll-up velocity.

A NOVEL METHOD FOR RAPID FABRICATION OF PMMA MICROFLUIDIC CHIP BY LASER CUTTING AND SEALING INTEGRATION

In this paper, we present a new method that is capable of manufacturing microfluidic chips of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) rapidly and cheaply. This technique, which we call Tape adhering-Laser Cutting and Sealing Integration (TLCSI), only utilizes a CO2 laser and a piece of double-sided tape to produce a microfluidic chip in several minutes. It only has three main steps. First, the double-sided tape sticks to the surface of a PMMA substrate. Second, the microchannel should be cut on the surface of the double-sided tape. At last, a PMMA cover plate with liquid pools is pressed onto the surface of the double-sided tape and a CO2 laser is used to cut edges of the chip for sealing the chip. We present a qualified microfluidic chip with regular microchannels and sealing strength of 1.2[Formula: see text]Mpa. Compared with most current fabrication methods, TLCSI is a quick and cost-effective way to produce microfluidic chips of PMMA.

Analytical Solutions of One-Dimensional Contaminant Transport in Soils with Source Production-Decay

An analytical solution in closed form of the advection-dispersion equation in one-dimensional contaminated soils is proposed in this paper. This is valid for non-conservative solutes with first order reaction, linear equilibrium sorption, and a time-dependent Robin boundary condition. The Robin boundary condition is expressed as a combined production-decay function representing a realistic description of the source release phenomena in time. The proposed model is particularly useful to describe sources as the contaminant release due to the failure in underground tanks or pipelines, Non Aqueous Phase Liquid pools, or radioactive decay series. The developed analytical model tends towards the known analytical solutions for particular values of the rate constants.

Visual Observations of Chamber Volume Effect on Ebullience From Submerged Orifice Plates

Effect of chamber volume upstream of the orifice on ebullience from orifice plates is studied experimentally in this paper. Bubble growth from orifice plates submerged in liquid pools is captured using high speed videography. The orifice plate substrate is acrylic glass and 11 different orifice diameters (diameter range: 0.610< D0< 2.261mm) are utilized. In addition to water, ethanol-water binary mixture with surface tension of 54 mN/m is used to examine the interplay between surface tension and chamber volume effects on bubble characteristics. For an acrylic glass orifice plate with a fixed chamber volume, above a certain transition orifice diameter, the bubbles from the orifice plate are of the same size and shape as those from a capillary tube orifice. However, below this diameter, the bubbles from the orifice plate show significantly different characteristics due to the chamber volume effect. The bubbles are more spherical in shape with the apex being sharper and more pointed. The bubbles also tend to sit closer to the plate due to their abnormally large size while the growth times are much shorter. These differences are highlighted by comparing photographs of bubble growth with and without the chamber volume effect. Additionally, for the medium chamber region, an empirical correlation was proposed to predict bubble departure diameters to within ±15 %. For a fixed chamber volume, variation in surface tension showed no change in the transition orifice diameter.