Day R.F., Stone H.A.
Harvard University, US
Keywords: boundary integral, lubrication, MEMS, Stokes
Several recent papers discuss a novel viscous micropump consisting of Poiseuille flow of fluid between two plates and a cylinder placed along the gap perpendicular to the ow direction. If the cylinder is not centered, rotating it will generate a net flow and a pressure drop along the channel, due to the net tangential viscous stresses along its surface. This device was proposed and demonstrated experimentally by Sen et al. [1], and has been simulated with finite-elements by Sharatchandra et al. [2] and DeCourtye et al. [3]. The research reported here complements their work by examining the lubrication limit where the gaps between the cylinder and the walls are small compared to the cylinder radius. Lubrication analysis shows there are optimum gap ratios for the maximum rotation rate and the maximum bulk flow. Also, since the Reynolds number can be much less than one, the Stokes equations are solved numerically, using a boundary integral method.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: Technical Proceedings of the 1999 International Conference on Modeling and Simulation of Microsystems
Published: April 19, 1999
Pages: 514 - 517
Industry sector: Sensors, MEMS, Electronics
Topics: Informatics, Modeling & Simulation, Micro & Bio Fluidics, Lab-on-Chip
ISBN: 0-9666135-4-6