Microfluidic study of effect of dispersed phase viscosity and continuous phase viscosity on emulsification in a cross-junction chip

Immiscible flow of oil phase and displacing phase with surfactant can cause emulsification during the oil development. However, it is still unclear how the viscosity of each phase influences the emulsification at the micro level. In this study, we investigated the flow regimes and emulsification of two immiscible fluids in a cross-junction device by using an oil-surfactant system and an oil-surfactant/polymer system. Based on the experimental data, we analyzed the flow regimes and draw flow regime maps of the two systems. Moreover, we established the new scaling laws that include the capillary number, the flow rate ratio, and the viscosity ratio of two phases to predict the droplet diameter or slug length. The findings indicated that there are four flow regimes in the oil-surfactant system, including threading, squeezing, dripping, and jetting regimes. Besides, a new type of flow regime, irregular dripping regime, appears in the oil-surfactant/polymer system. According to the regime maps, the area of dripping regime decreases with the increase of the viscosity of dispersed phase or continuous phase. For both systems, the regression equations with the viscosity ratio have better fitting effect than those without the viscosity ratio. Meanwhile, compared with the effect of viscosity ratio of two phases, the flow rate ratio of two phases has higher influence on droplet diameter and slug length. The experiments present detailed emulsification processes at pore scale and provide new insights for the prediction of emulsion droplets and slugs.