Machine Learning Model of Dimensionless Numbers to Predict Flow Patterns and Droplet Characteristics for Two-Phase Digital Flows

In the digital microfluidic experiments, the droplet characteristics and flow patterns are generally identified and predicted by the empirical methods, which are difficult to process a large amount of data mining. In addition, due to the existence of inevitable human invention, the inconsistent judgment standards make the comparison between different experiments cumbersome and almost impossible. In this paper, we tried to use machine learning to build algorithms that could automatically identify, judge, and predict flow patterns and droplet characteristics, so that the empirical judgment was transferred to be an intelligent process. The difference on the usual machine learning algorithms, a generalized variable system was introduced to describe the different geometry configurations of the digital microfluidics. Specifically, Buckingham’s theorem had been adopted to obtain multiple groups of dimensionless numbers as the input variables of machine learning algorithms. Through the verification of the algorithms, the SVM and BPNN algorithms had classified and predicted the different flow patterns and droplet characteristics (the length and frequency) successfully. By comparing with the primitive parameters system, the dimensionless numbers system was superior in the predictive capability. The traditional dimensionless numbers selected for the machine learning algorithms should have physical meanings strongly rather than mathematical meanings. The machine learning algorithms applying the dimensionless numbers had declined the dimensionality of the system and the amount of computation and not lose the information of primitive parameters.