Characteristics of the travelling speed of droplet flow splitting in bifurcated minichannel networks

Characteristics of the travelling speed of droplet flow splitting in bifurcated minichannel networks | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Characteristics of the travelling speed of droplet flow splitting in bifurcated minichannel networks Kui He, Liangzhen Zhang, Yilin Zhan, Ya Ge, Zhaochuan Chen, Si-Min M. Huang This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7062780/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 06 Oct, 2025 Read the published version in Microfluidics and Nanofluidics → Version 1 posted 9 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The splitting modes of droplet flow in bifurcated minichannel networks is valuable in terms of distributing them in various microfluidics chemical applications and have been widely studied. Previously, the prediction of the splitting modes relies on the models of hydraulic flow resistance. This paper presents an experimental study focusing on the correlation between the droplet splitting modes and the features of travelling speed of droplets at various minichannel networks. A high-speed camera and machine vision algorithm are used to measure the instantaneous travelling speed of droplets at the inlet and the arms of the networks. Five typical splitting modes are identified including bypass splitting, breakup splitting, random splitting, uniform splitting and oscillating splitting. The characteristics of the droplet speed corresponding to different splitting modes are studied and understood by analyzing the varying features and the correlations of them. It shows that the splitting mode can be correlated to the characteristics of the travelling speed of droplets. The research introduces a non-intrusive method to identify and monitor the droplet splitting mode at T-junctions, which only relies on local vision features of several droplets. visualized experiment phase splitting bifurcated minichannel travelling speed Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 06 Oct, 2025 Read the published version in Microfluidics and Nanofluidics → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 27 Jul, 2025 Reviews received at journal 25 Jul, 2025 Reviews received at journal 12 Jul, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 10 Jul, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 10 Jul, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 10 Jul, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 08 Jul, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 08 Jul, 2025 First submitted to journal 07 Jul, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7062780","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":484509513,"identity":"ef5353f5-175f-445e-a211-6701d8cb3c0b","order_by":0,"name":"Kui He","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAtElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACAwY2xgc8MDaxWpgNgFokSNLCJkGaFnP2trSKN78O1zGwN2+TYKi5Q1iLZc+xYzfn9h2WYOA5VibBcOwZEQ67kd52m7cHqEUix0yCseEwEVruP28rBmuRf0Oslhtsx5h5foBs4SFWy5m0ZMm5DemSbTxpxRYJx4jRcvyY4Yc3f6z5+dkPb7zxoYYILWDA2MbAwAZiJBCpAQj+EK90FIyCUTAKRiAAAOkLN8Vy0ehmAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Dongguan University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Kui","middleName":"","lastName":"He","suffix":""},{"id":484509514,"identity":"dc029e71-549a-4a7d-a56f-12cacd7418f4","order_by":1,"name":"Liangzhen Zhang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Dongguan University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Liangzhen","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":484509515,"identity":"1693e1e5-f6b7-4c4e-901c-45c45f133a25","order_by":2,"name":"Yilin Zhan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Dongguan University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yilin","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhan","suffix":""},{"id":484509516,"identity":"7af47ef3-e0fa-437f-b417-b9412a24e65a","order_by":3,"name":"Ya Ge","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Dongguan University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ya","middleName":"","lastName":"Ge","suffix":""},{"id":484509517,"identity":"b2e7bf91-a620-4869-a0df-48a79d9630c2","order_by":4,"name":"Zhaochuan Chen","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Dongguan University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhaochuan","middleName":"","lastName":"Chen","suffix":""},{"id":484509518,"identity":"5d754b97-b724-40a7-9de1-d441b18e8246","order_by":5,"name":"Si-Min M. 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