The development and growth of microfluidics has stimulated
interest in the behaviour of complex liquids in microscale geometries
and provided a rich platform for rheometric investigations of
non-Newtonian phenomena at small scales. Microfluidic techniques
present the rheologist with new opportunities for material property
measurement and this review discusses the use of microfluidic devices
to measure bulk rheology in both shear and extensional flows.
Capillary, stagnation and contraction flows are presented in this
context and developments, limitations and futureperspectives are examined.