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  4. A pancake droplet translating in a Hele-Shaw cell: lubrication film and flow field
 
research article

A pancake droplet translating in a Hele-Shaw cell: lubrication film and flow field

Zhu, Lailai  
•
Gallaire, Francois  
2016
Journal of Fluid Mechanics

We adopt a boundary integral method to study the dynamics of a translating droplet confined in a Hele-Shaw cell in the Stokes regime. The droplet is driven by the motion of the ambient fluid with the same viscosity. We characterize the three-dimensional (3D) nature of the droplet interface and of the flow field. The interface develops an arc-shaped ridge near the rear-half rim with a protrusion in the rear and a laterally symmetric pair of higher peaks; this pair of protrusions has been identified by recent experiments (Huerre et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 115 (6), 2015, 064501) and predicted asymptotically (Burgess & Foster, Phys. Fluids A, vol. 2 (7), 1990, pp. 1105-1117). The mean film thickness is well predicted by the extended Bretherton model (Klaseboer et al., Phys. Fluids, vol. 26 (3), 2014, 032107) with fitting parameters. The flow in the streamwise wall-normal middle plane is featured with recirculating zones, which are partitioned by stagnation points closely resembling those of a two-dimensional droplet in a channel. Recirculation is absent in the wall-parallel, unconfined planes, in sharp contrast to the interior flow inside a moving droplet in free space. The preferred orientation of the recirculation results from the anisotropic confinement of the Hele-Shaw cell. On these planes, we identify a dipolar disturbance flow field induced by the travelling droplet and its 1/r(2) spatial decay is confirmed numerically. We pinpoint counter-rotating streamwise vortex structures near the lateral interface of the droplet, further highlighting the complex 3D flow pattern.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1017/jfm.2016.357
Web of Science ID

WOS:000384720400006

Author(s)
Zhu, Lailai  
Gallaire, Francois  
Date Issued

2016

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published in
Journal of Fluid Mechanics
Volume

798

Start page

955

End page

969

Subjects

boundary integral methods

•

drops

•

Hele-Shaw flows

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LFMI  
Available on Infoscience
November 21, 2016
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/131282
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