Theoretical, Simulation and Experimental Analysis of Microfluidic Droplet Generation and Recovering Process with Applications in Frying Oil Assessments.

The research on microfluidic droplet size prediction has been extensive and fruitful, while the droplet deforming process has been seldom studied. In this paper, a frying-oil-assessing microfluidic device was designed to study the droplet deforming and recovering processes, which were dominated by channel geometry, flow rates, sheath flow viscosity and interfacial tension of the two phases. Theoretical expressions of the deforming process and its extreme value were obtained for the first time, supported by simulation and experiments. Theoretical, simulation and experimental results indicated that the steady-state droplet length could be a useful parameter for frying oil assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]