We investigated the influence of an alternate current (AC) electric field on droplet generation in a T-junction device. We used sodium chloride solution with various conductivities to adjust the response time of the fluidic system. At constant flow rates of both continuous and dispersed phases, the critical parameters for the droplet formation process are the magnitude, the frequency of the applied voltage and the conductivity of the dispersed phase. The response of the droplet formation process to AC excitation is characterised by the relative area of the formed droplet. The relative response time of the fluidic system to the applied AC voltage is characterised by the relative response time that is proportional to the ratio of the AC frequency to the conductivity of the dispersed phase. An accurate prediction of the breakdown voltage for the walls also proved robustness of our model. Furthermore, experiments were repeated with 0.5 g/L and 1 g/L xanthan gum solutions as non-Newtonian fluids. The results reveal the negligible influence of viscoelasticity on the droplet formation process. On-demand size controllable generation of non-Newtonian droplets is subsequently demonstrated following the same trend of the Newtonian counterparts.

我们研究了交流（AC）电场对T型结设备中液滴产生的影响。我们使用具有不同电导率的氯化钠溶液来调节流体系统的响应时间。在连续相和分散相的流速恒定时，液滴形成过程的关键参数是大小，施加电压的频率和分散相的电导率。液滴形成过程对交流激励的响应以形成的液滴的相对面积为特征。流体系统对施加的交流电压的相对响应时间的特征在于相对响应时间，该相对响应时间与交流频率与分散相的电导率之比成比例。对壁击穿电压的准确预测也证明了我们模型的鲁棒性。此外，以0.5 g / L和1 g / L的黄原胶溶液作为非牛顿流体重复进行实验。结果表明，粘弹性对液滴形成过程的影响可忽略不计。随后，按照牛顿对应物的相同趋势，证明了按需大小可控的非牛顿液滴的生成。