The cross-slot geometry plays an important role in the study of nonlinear effects of viscoelastic fluids. The flow of viscoelastic fluid in a micro cross-slot with a high channel aspect ratio (AR, the ratio of channel depth to width) can be divided into three types, which are symmetric flow, steady-state asymmetric flow and time-dependent flow under the inlet condition with a constant velocity. However, the flow pattern of a viscoelastic fluid in the cross-slot when a stimulation is applied at inlets has been rarely reported. In this paper, the response of cross-slot flow under an external sinusoidal stimulation is studied by numerical simulations of a two-dimensional model representing the geometry with a maximum limit of AR. For the cases under constant inlet velocity conditions, three different flow patterns occur successively with the increase of Weissenberg number (Wi). For the cases under sinusoidal varying inlet velocity conditions, when the stimulation frequency is far away from the natural frequency of a viscoelastic fluid, the frequency spectrum of velocity fluctuation field shows the characteristics of a fundamental frequency and several harmonics. However, the harmonic frequency disappears when the stimulation frequency is close to the natural frequency of the viscoelastic fluid. Besides, the flow pattern shows spatial symmetry and changes with time. In conclusion, the external stimulation has an effect on the flow pattern of viscoelastic fluid in the 2D micro cross-slot channel, and a resonance occurs when the stimulation frequency is close to the natural frequency of the fluid.
Keywords: external stimulation; micro cross-slot channel; microfluidics; viscoelastic fluid.