REVIEW ARTICLE

Unconventional hydrodynamics of hybrid fluid made of liquid metals and aqueous solution under applied fields

  • Xu-Dong ZHANG 1 ,
  • Yue SUN 1 ,
  • Sen CHEN 1 ,
  • Jing LIU , 2
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  • 1. Beijing Key Lab of Cryo-Biomedical Engineering and Key Lab of Cryogenics, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190; School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • 2. Beijing Key Lab of Cryo-Biomedical Engineering and Key Lab of Cryogenics, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190; School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049; Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Received date: 27 Sep 2017

Accepted date: 24 Nov 2017

Published date: 04 Jun 2018

Copyright

2018 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

Abstract

The hydrodynamic characteristics of hybrid fluid made of liquid metal/aqueous solution are elementary in the design and operation of conductive flow in a variety of newly emerging areas such as chip cooling, soft robot, and biomedical practices. In terms of physical and chemical properties, such as density, thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity, their huge differences between the two fluidic phases remain a big challenge for analyzing the hybrid flow behaviors. Besides, the liquid metal immersed in the solution can move and deform when administrated with non-contact electromagnetic force, or even induced by redox reaction, which is entirely different from the cases of conventional contact force. Owing to its remarkable capability in flow and deformation, liquid metal immersed in the solution is apt to deform on an extremely large scale, resulting in marked changes on its boundary and interface. However, the working mecha- nisms of the movement and deformation of liquid metal lack appropriate models to describe such scientific issues via a set of well-established unified equations. To promote investigations in this important area, the present paper is dedicated to summarizing this unconventional hydrodynamics from experiment, theory, and simulation. Typical experimental phenomena and basic working mechanisms are illustrated, followed by the movement and deformation theories to explain these phenomena. Several representative simulation methods are then proposed to tackle the governing functions of the electrohydrodynamics. Finally, prospects and challenges are raised, offering an insight into the new physics of the hybrid fluid under applied fields.

Cite this article

Xu-Dong ZHANG , Yue SUN , Sen CHEN , Jing LIU . Unconventional hydrodynamics of hybrid fluid made of liquid metals and aqueous solution under applied fields[J]. Frontiers in Energy, 2018 , 12(2) : 276 -296 . DOI: 10.1007/s11708-018-0545-3

Acknowledgments

This work is partially supported by the NSFC Key Project (Grant No. 91748206), the dean’s research funding and the frontier project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as Beijing Municipal Science (Grant No. z151100003715002).
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