Multiphase MicroMixer Oscillator

We present anumerical study of a microchannel device called 'heart-spade' or'Corning Micro-Mixer', shedding light on a "multiphase fluidic oscillator" which is an emergent property of theflow over a certain range of parameter values. This behaviour, distinct from the well-known interfacial regimes,such as jetting or dripping, arises due to a non-symmetrical pinching mechanism which accompanies the flow.Despite the symmetric configuration of the Corning MicroMixer channel, and the symmetric implementation ofthe inlet boundary conditions in a fully three-dimensional and massively-parallelized,direct numerical simulation code, intriguing oscillatory motion emerges and dominates the dynamics.