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This paper numerically investigates the influence of a uniform magnetic field on the droplet formation process at a microfluidic flow focusing configuration. The mathematical model was formulated by considering the balance of forces such as interfacial tension, magnetic force, and viscous stress across the liquid/liquid interface. A linearly magnetizable fluid was assumed. The magnetic force acts as a body force where the magnetic permeability jumps across the interface. The governing equations were solved with finite volume method on a Cartesian fixed staggered grid. The evolution of the interface was captured by the particle level set method. The code was validated with the equilibrium steady state of a ferrofluid droplet exposed to a uniform magnetic field. The evolution of the droplet formation in a flow focusing configuration was discussed. The paper mainly analyzes the effects of magnetic Bond number and the susceptibility on the velocity field and the droplet size. The droplet size increased with increasing magnetic strength and susceptibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hilbert–Chapman–Enskog expansion of the kinetic equations in mean flight times is believed to be asymptotic rather than convergent. It is therefore inadvisable to use lower order results to simplify the current approximation as is done in the traditional Chapman–Enskog procedure, since that is an iterative method. By avoiding such recycling of lower order results, one obtains macroscopic equations that are asymptotically equivalent to the ones found in the Chapman–Enskog approach. The new equations contain higher order terms that are discarded in the Chapman–Enskog method. These make a significant impact on the results for such problems as ultrasound propagation. In this paper, it is shown that these results turn out well with relatively little complication when the expansions are carried to second order in the mean free time, for the example of the relaxation or Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook model of kinetic theory. © 2003 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]