We experimentally investigate the flow structures formed when two miscible fluids that have large viscosity contrasts are injected and hydrodynamically focused in plane microchannels. Parallel viscous flows composed of a central stream surrounded by symmetric sheath streams are examined as a function of the flow rates, fluid viscosities, and rates of molecular diffusion. We study miscible interfacial morphologies and show a route for manipulating viscous flow-segregation processes in plane microsystems. The diffusion layer at the boundary of an ensheathed fluid grows as function of the distance downstream and depends on the Péclet number. In particular, we observe diffusion-enhanced viscous ensheathing processes. In the presence of a constriction, we investigate the formation of a lubricated viscous thread in the converging flow and also the buckling morphologies of the thread in the diverging flow. This study, relevant to multifluid flow between a “thick” material and a “thin” solvent, demonstrates the possibility to further control steady and oscillatory miscible fluid microstructures.

• Received 24 July 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.78.056308