A Numerical Study of Electrode Arrangements for Precise Microdrop Generation in an Electrowetting-Based Digital Microfluidic Platform

Abstract

Owing to the wide applications in a large variety of multi-disciplinary areas, electrowetting-based digital microfluidics (DMF) has received considerable attention in the last decade. However, because of the complexity involved in the droplet generation process, the techniques and configurations for precise and controllable microdrop generation are still unclear. In this paper, a numerical study has been performed to investigate the impact of electrode arrangements on microdrop generation in an electrowetting-based DMF Platform proposed by a previously published experimental work. The governing equations for the microfluidic flow are solved by a finite volume formulation with a two-step projection method on a fixed numerical domain. The free surface of the microdrop is tracked by a coupled level-set and volume-of-fluid (CLSVOF) method, and the surface tension at the free surface is computed by the continuum surface force (CSF) scheme. A simplified viscous force scheme based on the ‘Hele-Shaw cell’ model is adopted to evaluate the viscous force exerted by the parallel plates. The generation process has been simulated with three different electrode arrangements, namely, ‘SL’, ‘SW’, and ‘SQ’. The effect of electrode arrangement on microdrop volume has been investigated. Besides, the influences of the initial microdrop location and volume on the generation process for the ‘SL’ design have been studied. The results can be used to advance microdrop generation techniques for various electrowetting-based DMF applications.