Motion and deformation of capsules flowing through a corner in the inertial and non-inertial regimes

We investigate the inertial and noninertial dynamics of three-dimensional elastic capsules flowing through a square channel presenting a sharp corner. The channel Reynolds number Re ranges from 0.01 to 50 and the Capillary number Ca, which measures the ratio of the viscous and elastic stresses, ranges from 0.075 to 0.35. We report trajectory, surface area, velocity and membrane stress in the case of a single capsule, two capsules and a train of ten capsules released upstream of the corner. This study contributes to the elaboration of practical guidelines for controlling capsule breakup and predicting throughput in both inertial and noninertial microfluidic experiments.