Flow characterization in converging-

diverging microchannels
Cite as: Phys. Fluids 30, 112004 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5048322
Submitted: 12 July 2018 • Accepted: 23 October 2018 • Published Online: 08 November 2018

Ran Tao, Yakang Jin, Xiang Gao, et al.

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© 2018 Author(s).
 PHYSICS OF FLUIDS 30, 112004 (2018)

Flow characterization in converging-diverging microchannels

Ran Tao, Yakang Jin, Xiang Gao, and Zhigang Lia)
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology,
Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong
(Received 12 July 2018; accepted 23 October 2018; published online 8 November 2018)

Experiments are conducted to investigate fluid flows in converging-diverging microchannels

(CDMCs). A new dimensionless number related to channel geometry, Gm, is introduced to com-
bine with the Reynolds number, Re, to characterize the flows. It is found that the new dimensionless
number, ReG = Re · Gm, is more appropriate than Re for flow characterization in CDMCs. Flows are
laminar for ReG < 40 regardless of the geometry of CDMCs. For laminar flows, the flow resistance
model developed in the literature works well. For transitional and turbulent flows, a general scaling law
for the flow resistance is developed, which suggests a polynomial dependence of pressure drop on the
flow rate. Numerical simulations have also been performed to confirm experimental results. Published
by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5048322

INTRODUCTION
Due to tremendous applications in a variety of areas,
microscale fluid flows have been extensively investigated. At
the early stage of microfluidics studies, most attention was
focused on fluid flows in uniform channels,1,2 for which the
boundary conditions (e.g., velocity slip) and flow scenarios
were examined. Compared with uniform channel flows, flows
in non-uniform microchannels are less studied. Converging-
diverging microchannels (CDMCs) are representative non-
uniform channels and the flows in CDMCs also have great
applications in biology, medicine, and engineering, such as
DNA stretching,3 artery stenosis (narrowing of an artery),4–6
particle separation,7,8 micromixers,9–12 design of microflu-
idic rheometry,13,14 flow rectifications,15 and heat transfer
enhancement,16 just to name a few. These applications require
a deep, fundamental understanding of flow characteristics in
CDMCs.
In the literature, many attempts have been made to investi-
gate flows in macroscale converging-diverging channels,17–26
for which pressure/velocity distributions, and flow scenarios
have been studied. In the previous work, the flow dynamics in
converging-diverging channels is mainly characterized by the
Reynolds number, Re. For uniform channel flows, it is well-
known that Re is an important number for flow description. In
converging-diverging channels, however, Re may not be suf-
ficient to describe the flow dynamics. For instance, it is found
that flows in a mild converging-diverging tube are laminar for
Re < 900,17 while flows in converging-diverging channels with
a relatively large converging/diverging angle show instability
and even turbulence when Re > 400.6 In other converging-
diverging channels, flows remain laminar for Re ranging from
100 to 1000.18 In CDMCs, a similar problem is expected.
Unfortunately, little work has been conducted to characterize
flows in CDMCs,27–30 which require extensive investigation.
Furthermore, most of the previous work on CDMC flows is
a) Email: mezli@ust.hk
concerned with the laminar regime, especially for the studies
of flow resistance.27–30 In the laminar regime, the flow resis-
tance has been found to be independent of Re. For turbulent
flows, how the flow resistance is affected by various parameters
is unknown.
In this work, we conduct experiments and numerical sim-
ulations to investigate flows in CDMCs with rectangular cross
sections and smooth surfaces. A new dimensionless num-
ber, Gm, which is associated with the geometry of CDMCs,
is proposed. It is found that the product of Re and Gm,
ReG = Re · Gm, forms an appropriate dimensionless number
for the characterization of flow transitions in CDMCs. In addi-
tion, the flow resistance for both laminar and turbulent flows
is investigated. For laminar flows, the theoretical prediction
developed in the literature works well. For turbulent flows, a
general law is obtained for describing the dependence of flow
resistance on ReG , which suggests a polynomial relationship
between the pressure drop and the flow rate.
CHIP FABRICATION AND EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
The traditional photolithography method31–33 was
employed to fabricate the microchannels in an n-type sili-
con wafer. Deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) (Surface Tech-
nology systems, United Kingdom) was used to construct
converging-diverging microchannels with an etching rate
of 2.5 µm/min. Fluid reservoirs were defined and etched
through DRIE from the backside of the wafer. To ensure
uniform properties of the channel surface, wet oxidation of
the wafer was performed to generate a 300-nm-thick oxide
layer before the microchannels were enclosed by a 500-µm-
thick glass through anodic bonding. Before bonding, channels
were investigated by a scanning electron microscope (SEM)
(JEOL JSM-6490). The channel height was determined by a
surface profiler (Tencor P-10, ClassOne Equipment, USA).
Microchannels of six different geometries were fabricated.
All of them were symmetric converging-diverging channels
with a linearly varying cross-sectional area, as illustrated
Fig. 1(a). Figure 1(b) shows an SEM image of a CDMC.

1070-6631/2018/30(11)/112004/7/$30.00 30, 112004-1 Published by AIP Publishing.

112004-2 Tao et al. Phys. Fluids 30, 112004 (2018)

FIG. 2. Experimental setup of the fluidic system. Arrows indicate the flow
direction.

Swagelok, USA) were used to measure the pressures at the

FIG. 1. Illustration of non-uniform microchannels. (a) Schematic of a
converging-diverging microchannel. (b) SEM image of a typical converging-
diverging microchannel.
inlet and outlet reservoirs through a data acquisition module
(NI9203 and NI cDAQ9171) installed with a labview pro-
gram (LABVIEW 2013, National Instruments, USA). For each
channel geometry, two microfluidic devices were fabricated
and the results were found to be similar. For each flow, at least
three experiments were conducted and the average results are
presented.
To explore the flow details, some flows were visual-
ized through streak photolithography, for which DI water was
seeded with fluorescent tracers and polymer microspheres with
a diameter of ∼3.2 µm (R0300, Duke Scientific, USA) (the
maximum Stokes number, St = 0.14, occurs at the throat of
the channels, which is quite small and indicates that the tracer
particles could follow the flow streamlines well). The flow
behavior was recorded by an inverted epifluorescence micro-
scope (Eclipse Ti-U, Nikon, Japan) equipped with a CCD
camera (EXi blue, QImaging, Canada).

The geometric parameters for the microchannels are listed RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
in Table I. By varying the flow rate, the upstream and downstream
The device was washed in an acetone ultrasonic bath for pressures, P1 and P2 , were measured. Figure 3 plots the
three times and then rinsed in deionized (DI) water. After
that, the fluidic chip was packaged by a PMMA holder. The
schematic of the experimental setup is illustrated in Fig. 2,
similar to our previous work.32,33 Before each experiment,
the chip was examined under a microscope to ensure that
there was no residue inside the channel and DI water was
prefilled into the channel to avoid air trapping. In the exper-
iments, DI water with a specific flow rate was achieved by
a stainless steel syringe (Cole-Parmer Instrument, USA) and
a high performance syringe pump (Nexus 6000, Chemyx,
Inc., USA). Pressure transducers (25 MPa with an accuracy
of 0.5% limit point calibration and 0.25% best-fit straight line,

TABLE I. Geometric parameters of six microchannels.

Microchannel I II III IV V VI

Minimum width wmin (µm) 8.65 16.31 5.91 10.75 16.56 10.59
Maximum width wmax (µm) 532 540 880 885 891 1773
FIG. 3. Pressure drop as a function of flow rate. Solid and open symbols are
Height h (µm) 60 60 60 60 60 60 the current and previous experimental results. Solid lines represent Eq. (12)
Length l (mm) 10 10 10 10 10 10 in the transitional and turbulent regimes. Dashed lines are the predictions of
Taper angle θ (◦ ) 3 3 5 5 5 10 Eq. (4) for the laminar regime. The inset shows the data in a linear plot. Error
bars are not shown as they are less than 3%.
112004-3 Tao et al.
pressure drop over the CDMCs, ∆p = P1 − P2 , as a func-
tion of the flow rate Q, where wmin and θ are the channel width
at the throat and the taper angle of the channel, respectively,
as depicted in Fig. 1(a). It is seen that the ∆p-Q curves expe-
rience a transition from a linear relationship to a nonlinear
dependence as the flow rate is increased. The transition indi-
cates that the flows might undergo changes in flow scenarios
as Q is varied. At low flow rates, the flows should be in the
laminar regime and the linear relationship between Q and ∆p is
consistent with previous theoretical and experimental results
(Fig. 3).27,28 At high flow rates, the flows might turn to turbu-
lence and the quantitative nonlinear dependence of ∆p on Q
has not been studied before.
For non-uniform channels, the averaged channel size
is usually employed for flow characterization.34,35 For the
linearly varying cross section microchannels in this work,
the averaged hydraulic diameter Dh = 4A/λ appears to be
a proper parameter, where A and λ are the cross-sectional
area and the perimeter at the middle of the converging (or
diverging) part of the channel. Then, Re can be expressed as
Re = ρVDh /µ, where ρ and µ are the fluid density and vis-
cosity, respectively, and V is the mean velocity at the middle
point of the converging part. Figure 4 depicts the flow resis-
tance, Rf = ∆p/Q, as a function of Re, where previous exper-
imental results for similar converging-diverging channels are
also shown. For each channel geometry in the current exper-
iments, it is seen that there exists a critical Re, Re∗ , where
flow transition takes place. For Re < Re∗ , Rf is independent
of Re. However, Rf increases greatly with increasing Re when
Re > Re∗ . For previous experiments, Rf remains constant for
Re up to 100.
It is known that Rf is independent of Re for laminar flows.
Therefore, Fig. 4 indicates that previous experiments27,28 are
in the laminar regime and the flows in the current experiments
cover both laminar and turbulent regimes. Furthermore, Fig. 4
shows that the critical Re, Re∗ , depends on the geometry of
the channel, which is consistent with previous work.6,17–20
For the six channels in Table I, channels I, II, III, IV, V,
and VI, Re∗ is about 20, 30, 10, 15, 20 and 8, respectively.
FIG. 4. Flow resistance Rf versus Re.
Phys. Fluids 30, 112004 (2018)
For the previous results,28 Re∗ should be higher than 100. The
dependence of Re∗ on the channel geometry suggests that Re
might not be an appropriate quantity for the characterization
of flows in CDMCs. Actually, the hydraulic diameter Dh in
Re only gives the average size of the channel but does not
reveal the converging/diverging rate. To consider the effects of
channel geometry on the flow resistance, a geometry-related
dimensionless number is proposed, which is given by
r
wmax
Gm = tan θ, (1)
wmin
where θ is the taper angle of the channel. In Eq. (1), θ describes

the converging/diverging rate of the channel and wmax wmin
is related to the channel length for a specific θ. A large θ

or wmax wmin leads to a strong flow velocity variation in the
channel and enhances the flow instability. Therefore, Gm is a
good number accounting for the effect of channel geometry
on flows, especially the flow transition. Then, the product of
Re and Gm, which is denoted by ReG ,
ρV Dh wmax
r
ReG = Re · Gm = tan θ, (2)
µ wmin
forms another dimensionless number that contains both the
geometric influence and the competition between viscous and
inertial effects, which could be a suitable number for char-
acterizing flow transition. It is noted that the square root in
Eq. (1) is used to ensure that Re plays a dominant role over
the geometry effect in flow description.
Figure 5 shows Rf as a function of ReG . It is seen that
flow transitions take place at the same ReG value, ReG ≈ 40,
regardless of the channel geometry. This is consistent with
the flow observation shown in Fig. 6. The streakline patterns
in Fig. 6 demonstrate that flows are laminar for ReG < 40
in channels with different geometries (channels IV and VI in
Table I; a video for the flow in channel IV can be found in
the supplementary material). The flows appear to be transi-
tional for 40 < ReG < 220 and become fully turbulent when
ReG > 220. For previous experiments, ReG < 40, and therefore,
the flows are in the laminar regime and Rf remains constant, as
FIG. 5. Flow resistance Rf as a function of ReG .
112004-4 Tao et al. Phys. Fluids 30, 112004 (2018)

FIG. 6. Streaklines of various flows. The red lines show

the position of the channel walls. [(a)–(f)] Channel IV in
Table I. [(g)–(l)] Channel VI in Table I. (a) Q = 0.05 ml/h,
ReG = 0.17. (b) Q = 2 ml/h, ReG = 6.6. (c) Q = 20 ml/h,
ReG = 66.4. (d) Q = 60 ml/h, ReG = 199.1. (e) Q = 70
ml/h, ReG = 232.3. (f ) Q = 80 ml/h, ReG = 265.5. (g) Q
= 2 ml/h, ReG = 7.2. (h) Q = 10 ml/h, ReG = 35.9. (i) Q
= 20 ml/h, ReG = 71.7. ( j) Q = 50 ml/h, ReG = 179.3. (k)
Q = 70 ml/h, ReG = 251.0. (l) Q = 80 ml/h, ReG = 286.8.

shown in Fig. 5. A comparison between Figs. 4 and 5 indicates to dominate. In this case, the total flow resistance can be con-
that ReG is more appropriate than Re for flow characterization sidered as a combination of the resistances caused by viscous
in CDMCs. (Rl ) and inertial (Rin ) effects such that
In CDMCs, the channel width w varies in the flow direc-
Rf = Rl + Rin . (5)
tion. For laminar flows, the flow resistance depends on the ratio
of w to the channel height h. At the locations, where w  h or If Eq. (5) is divided by Rl , the reduced flow resistance,
w  h, the Poiseuille’s law works well. For w ∼ h, flow resis- Rf∗ = Rf Rl , is written as

tance needs special treatment, which has been suggested in the
literature.27,36 Then, the flow resistance for laminar flows in Rf∗ = 1 + Rin
∗
, (6)
CDMCs, Rl , can be estimated as where Rin ∗ = R  R . Figure 7 shows R∗ as a function of Re
in l G
  x2 ∗ in
in the transitional and turbulent regimes (ReG > 40). It is seen
12µ x1 Ip
"
dx
Rl = 2 + 16π µ
2
dx ∗ is sensitive to the taper angle. To obtain a universal
that Rin
h 0 (wmin + 2 tan θx)3 x1 A(x)
2
∗ on Re , the effect of the taper
 law about the dependence of Rin G
12µ L/2
#
dx angle needs to be considered. For this purpose, a dimensionless
+ 3 , (3)
h x2 (wmin + 2 tan θx) quantity, S m , is proposed, which is given by
where x = 0 is at the throat of the channel, x 1 and x 2 are the
locations, where w/h = 1/4 and w/h = 4, respectively, A(x) is the
cross-sectional area, and Ip∗ = Ip A2 with Ip = ∫ A (y2 + z2 )dA,

which is called the specific polar moment of cross-sectional
inertia.27,36 For channels
 of rectangular
 cross section, it has
been shown that Ip∗ = w2 + h2 (12wh).37 Integrating Eq. (3),
it is obtained that
!
6µ 1 16 424µ 12µ wmax
Rl = − 2 + 3 + 3 ln .
h tan θ wmin 2 h 3h tan θ h tan θ 4h
(4)

The predictions of Eq. (4) are depicted as the dashed lines

in Fig. 3, which are generally in good agreement with
the experiments. The discrepancy for the smallest channel
with wmin = 5.91 µm might be caused by the error in the
determination of wmin and the fabrication defects at the
throat.
In the laminar regime, the flow resistance is mainly caused
by the viscous effect. When ReG > 40, the inertial effect tends ∗ versus Re in the transitional and turbulent regimes.
FIG. 7. Rin G
112004-5 Tao et al. Phys. Fluids 30, 112004 (2018)

h Therefore, the ∆p–Q relationship for flows in CDMCs for

Sm = . (7)
λ any ReG value (or in any regime) can be obtained using either
It is noted that S m can also be expressed using the taper angle Eq. (4) or Eq. (12). These two expressions indicate that ReG
θ as S m = h/(2h + l tan θ + 2wmin ). For a given wmin , at a is indeed an appropriate quantity for flow characterization in
relatively large θ, Rin∗ is large, as shown in Fig. 7, while S is
m CDMCs. The physical meaning of ReG suggests that a large
small. Therefore, the dependence of Rin ∗ S on Re for different
m G Gm promotes flow transition, i.e., flows can change from lam-
θ could be unified. inar to turbulent at a relatively small Re (or velocity) if the
∗ · S as a function of Re . For Re > 40,
Figure 8 plots Rin Gm of a CDMC is large. According to Eq. (1), a large Gm
m G G
∗ · S for different geometries col-
it is seen that the values of Rin m can be achieved by using a large taper angle θ. This leads to a
lapse into a single linear relationship, which can be expressed large velocity variation transverse to the flow direction, which
as enhances the flow instability and consequently tends to gen-
∗
Rin Sm = k(ReG − 40) for ReG > 40, (8) erate turbulence. Another reason accounting for this effect is
that a large θ can cause flow detachment from the channel sur-
where k = 3.14 × 10−4 is the slope of the dashed line in Fig. 8, face in the divergent part due to the inertial effect. As shown
which is independent of the geometry of the channels. On the in Figs. 6(c) and 6(i), the fluid could not follow the channel
basis of Eq. (8), it is easy to obtain that surface when ReG becomes higher than 40. Without the con-
λk finement of the channel surface, the flow stability is weakened.
∗
Rin = (ReG − 40). (9) When the flow velocity is further increased, turbulence can be
h
∗ can be written as
easily triggered.
If the flow rate Q = VA is used, Rin
4k ρGm 40kλ NUMERICAL SIMULATION
∗
Rin = Q− , (10)
µh h Numerical simulations have also been performed to con-
and the flow resistance Rf is determined as firm the experiments. As the Navier-Stokes equation is valid
for microchannel flows,39 the commercial software FLUENT
4k ρGmRl
!
40kλ is used. The structure of channel VI in Table I is employed.
Rf = Q+ 1− Rl , (11)
µh h Laminar and k-epsilon models are used for laminar and tur-
bulent flows, respectively. Figure 9 shows the dependence of
which leads to
∆p on Q as Q is varied. It is seen that numerical results are in
∆p = aQ + bQ2 for ReG > 40, (12) good agreement with experiments over the flow rate range in
the experiments.
Rl and b = 4kρGmR
 
where a = 1 − 40kλ h µh
l
. The linear term The pressure and velocity contours for two flows with
on the right-hand side, aQ, mainly denotes the pressure drop ReG = 12.8 and 127.6 are depicted in Figs. 10 and 11, respec-
required to overcome the viscous resistance. It is the contri- tively. In Fig. 10(a), it is seen that the pressure decreases
bution of the diffusion term of the Navier-Stokes equation. monotonically along the channel for the low ReG flow (lam-
The second term, bQ2 , is primarily the pressure difference inar). For the flow of ReG = 127.6 [Fig. 10(b)], however, the
needed to overcome the inertial effect, which is caused by lowest pressure takes place right after the throat of the channel.
the nonlinear convective term of the Navier-Stokes equa- This causes vortices, as indicated by the circular streaklines in
tion.15,38 The solid lines in Fig. 3 represent the predictions Figs. 6(d) and 6(j) [the vortices in Fig. 6(d) can be found in the
of Eq. (12). video in the supplementary material]. It is also seen that the

∗ S as a function of Re .
FIG. 8. Variation of Rin m G FIG. 9. Comparison between numerical simulations and experimental results.
112004-6 Tao et al.
largest pressure loss occurs around the throat for both flows,
which presents a major contribution to the flow resistance,
especially for high ReG flows.
FIG. 11. Velocity contours for the flows in Fig. 10. (a) Q = 4 ml/h and ReG
= 12.8. (b) Q = 40 ml/h and ReG = 127.6.
Phys. Fluids 30, 112004 (2018)
FIG. 10. Pressure changes. (a) Q = 4
ml/h and ReG = 12.8. (b) Q = 40 ml/h
and ReG = 127.6. In (a) and (b), the
top and middle panels show the pressure
contours and the bottom panel plots the
pressure variation along the centerline
of the channel.
CONCLUSIONS
We have investigated fluid flows in CDMCs. By consid-
ering the geometry effect, a new dimensionless number Gm is
proposed and the product of Re and Gm, i.e., ReG , is shown
to be an appropriate dimensionless number for flow charac-
terization. Furthermore, a general law has been developed for
the estimation of flow resistance for transitional and turbulent
flows, which suggests a polynomial relationship between the
pressure drop and the flow rate. The dependence of the pres-
sure drop on the flow rate has also been confirmed by numerical
simulations.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
See supplementary material for the following video: Flow
in channel IV as the flow rate is increased.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the Research Grants Council
of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under Grant
112004-7 Tao et al.
No. 16210615. We thank the Nanosystem Fabrication Facility
at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology for
the device fabrication.
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