Dynamics of compound drops is central in several emerging applications including emulsion-fueled direct injection, targeted drug delivery, and the development of mechano-sensitive artificial cells. These applications are commonly hallmarked by high shear rates in confined fluidic environments. In the present work, we depict the role of the transverse electric field in controlling the resulting morpho-dynamics, including non-monotonic topological evolution and pinch-off phenomenon. In a tightly confined domain, we further show that the critical value of the electric field for triggering the pinch-off phenomenon may be greatly reduced as compared to larger-sized conduits. Finally, we portray a non-trivial variation of the drop pinch-off time with the degree of domain confinement, as attributed to the complex electro-hydrodynamic coupling over small scales. These results may turn out to be critical in manipulating the shape evolution of bio-mimetic soft matter in physiologically relevant fluidic pathways and on-chip applications.

中文翻译：

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有限剪切流作用下复合液滴的电场调制变形动力学

复合滴剂的动力学在包括乳化燃料直接注射，靶向药物递送和机械敏感人造细胞的开发在内的几个新兴应用中至关重要。这些应用通常以受限流体环境中的高剪切速率为特征。在当前的工作中，我们描述了横向电场在控制最终的形态动力学中的作用，包括非单调的拓扑演化和夹断现象。在一个严格限制的范围内，我们进一步表明，与较大尺寸的导管相比，用于触发夹断现象的电场的临界值可能会大大降低。最后，我们描述了液滴收缩时间随域约束程度的不平凡变化，这归因于小规模的复杂的电液耦合。这些结果可能对于在生理相关的流体路径和芯片应用中操纵仿生软物质的形状演变至关重要。