Articles & Issues
- Language
- English
- Conflict of Interest
- In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.
- Publication history
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Received August 27, 2025
Revised November 25, 2025
Accepted December 18, 2025
Available online March 25, 2026
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This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits
unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Design Principles for Scalable Parallel Microbubble Generation: Balancing Two-Phase Flow Resistance
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-025-00631-w
Abstract
Parallelizing monodisperse microbubble generators within microfl uidic devices off ers a promising strategy for signifi -
cantly increasing production throughput. However, gases diff er fundamentally from liquids in key properties—such as
low viscosity and density, high interfacial tension with liquids, and high compressibility—complicating the uniform generation
of bubbles across multiple generators. These gas-phase characteristics introduce coupling eff ects between parallel
units and result in hydrodynamic feedback from the collection channels, making scalable operation more challenging. In
microfl uidic systems, gas and liquid enter the bubble-generation channels as single-phase fl ows. After bubble formation,
two-phase fl ow resistance dominates in the collection channels. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the uniformity of
bubbles produced by eight parallel fl ow-focusing generators under two-phase fl ow conditions. The infl uence of gas pressure,
capillary number, and viscosity ratio is examined experimentally. We fi nd that achieving uniform fl uid distribution
for monodisperse bubble generation requires consideration of additional two-phase hydrodynamic resistance, determined
by both the capillary number and viscosity ratio. This study addresses a critical gap in understanding two-phase fl ow
resistance and provides design guidelines for the scalable production of uniform bubbles.

