Investigations of modular microfluidic geometries for passive manipulations on droplets

Multiple pipetting is a standard laboratory procedure resulting in the compartmentalisation of a liquid sample. Microfluidics offers techniques which can replace this process by the use of tiny droplets. Passive manipulation on droplets is an interesting and promising approach for the design of microfluidic devices which on one hand are easy-to-use and on the other, execute complex laboratory procedures. We present a comprehensive study of the geometry of microfluidic components which encode different operations on droplets into the structure of the device. The understanding of hydrodynamic interactions between the continuous flow and a droplet travelling through confined space of nontrivial microfluidic geometries is crucial for a rational and efficient design of new generation of modular microfluidic processors with embedded instructions.