Lubrication of Highly Viscous Core-Annular Flows in Microfluidic Chambers

We investigate the lubrication transition of high-viscosity fluid threads flowing in sheaths of less viscous fluids, i.e., viscous core-annular flows, in microchannels. Focus is given on the flow behavior of threads as they traverse a quasi-two-dimensional diverging-converging slit microfluidic chamber. The role of the viscosity contrast is examined for both miscible and immiscible fluids, and, for the later case, both partially wetting and nonwetting threads are considered. The conditions for lubrication are established in relation to flow rates of injection, interfacial properties, viscosities, and phenomena such as viscous buckling, wetting, breakup, and coalescence.