Cette thèse, intitulée « Emulsification en systèmes microstructurés », s’inscrit au sein de la tâche « Emulsification contrôlée » du projet européen IMPULSE. Deux micromélangeurs en acier inoxydable, un V-type et un Caterpillar, ont été testés en utilisant un pilote d’émulsification continue. Ces dispositifs conçus en acier inoxydable et fonctionnant comme des boîtes noires, des micromélangeurs transparents ont ensuite été utilisés afin de comprendre leurs mécanismes d’émulsification. Les paramètres-clés intervenant dans la formation de gouttes à un orifice à l’échelle macroscopique ont dans un premier temps été identifiés. A l’échelle microscopique, la formation des gouttelettes dans le micromélangeur V-type est issue de la mise en contact des jets des phases aqueuse et organique formés à la sortie de ce dispositif et d’un phénomène élongationnel avec des instabilités interfaciales. Dans le cas du Caterpillar, la taille des gouttelettes dépend de la géométrie interne des éléments en série de ce micromélangeur. La formation des gouttelettes est issue d’un phénomène de cisaillement au niveau de la jonction en Y. La réduction de la taille de ces gouttelettes est ensuite due à leur passage dans les éléments de mélange. L’utilisation de micromélangeurs transparents a, quant à elle, permis de caractériser davantage ces deux micromélangeurs par micro-PIV et caméra rapide. Enfin, une dépendance du diamètre des gouttelettes par rapport à l’énergie dissipée est constatée pour le Caterpillar mais par pour le V-type. L’énergie dissipée dans ces deux micromélangeurs semble être moindre et les émulsions formées de meilleure qualité par rapport aux procédés classiques d’émulsification / This thesis, entitled “Emulsification in micromixers” was carried out within the framework of the Task “Controlled Emulsification” of the European IMPULSE project. Two micromixers in stainless steel, the V-type and the Caterpillar, were tested in an experimental setup. These microdevices working as black boxes, transparent micromixers were used after to gain insight into the fundamental mechanisms for emulsification. Firstly, the key parameters enabling the drop formation at macroscopic scale were identified. At microscopic scale, the droplet formation in the V-type micromixer results from the contact of aqueous and organic phases jets at the outlet of the microdevice and from elongational phenomena with interfacial instabilities. In the case of the Caterpillar, the droplets size depends on the internal geometry of the microdevice. The droplet formation can be mainly attributed to the shearing phenomena at the Y-junction. The decrease of the droplets’ size is then due to their passage through the mixing elements in series in the outlet channel. Moreover, the use of transparent micromixers allows to characterize these two micromixers by the micro-PIV and high speed camera. A straightforward relationship between the energy dissipation and the size of droplets was established for the Caterpillar, but not for the V-type. Moreover, the energy dissipation within these two micromixers is lower and the emulsions obtained having a more satisfactory quality than in the case of the classical emulsification processes

A moving contact line is the idealized line of intersection between two immiscible fluids as one displaces the other along a solid boundary. The displacement process has been the subject of a large amount of theoretical and experimental research; however, the fundamental processes that govern contact line motion are still unknown. The challenge from an experimental perspective is to make measurements with high enough resolution to validate competing theories. An experimental method has been developed to simultaneously measure interface motion, dynamic contact angles, and local fluid velocity fields using micron-resolution Particle Image Velocimetry (µPIV). Capillary numbers range from 1.7 x 10^(⁻⁴) to 6.2 x 10^(⁻⁴). Interface velocities were measured between 1.7 µm/s and 33 µm/s. Dynamic contact angles were manually measured between 1.1 µm and 120 µm from the contact line, and calculated from µPIV data to within several hundred nanometers from the contact line. Fluid velocities were measured over two orders of magnitude closer to the contact line than published values with an increase in resolution of over 3400%. The appearance of a recirculation zone similar to controversial prediction below previously published limits demonstrates the power and significance of the method.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This work presents the development and analysis of a system that combines the concepts of light field microscopy and particle image velocimetry (PIV) to measure three-dimensional velocities within a microvolume. Rectanglar microchannels were fabricated with dimensions on the order of 350-950 micrometers using a photolithographic process and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The flow was seeded with fluorescent particles and pumped through microchannels at Reynolds numbers ranging from 0.016 to 0.028. Flow at Reynolds numbers in the range of 0.02 to 0.03 was seeded with fluorescent particles and pumped through microchannels. A light field microscope with a lateral resolution of 6.25 micrometers and an axial resolution of 15.5 micrometers was designed and built based on the concepts described by Levoy et al. Light field images were captured continuously at a frame rate of 3.9 frames per second using a Canon 5D Mark II DSLR camera. Each image was post processed to render a stack of two-dimensional images. The focal stacks were further post processed using various methods including bandpass filtering, 3D deconvolution, and intensity-based thresholding, to remove effects of diffraction and blurring. Subsequently, a multi-pass, three-dimensional PIV algorithm was used to measure channel velocities. Results from PIV analysis were compared with an analytical solution for fully-developed cases, and with CFD simulations for developing flows. Relative errors for fully-developed flow measurements, within the light field microscope refocusing range, were approximately 5% or less. Overall, the main limitations are the reduction in lateral resolution, and the somewhat low axial resolution. Advantages include the relatively low cost, ease of incorporation into existing micro-PIV systems, simple self-calibration process, and potential for resolving instantaneous three-dimensional velocities in a microvolume.