The Design and Analysis of Piezoelectrically Actuated Microfluidic Systems

Author(s):  
Paul Chiarot ◽  
Pierre Sullivan ◽  
Ridha Ben Mrad

Microfluidics requires a fundamental understanding of flow characteristics on the microscale. This work combines the design and characterization of passive microfluidic components. The goal is to improve the design and reliability of these devices and to develop and confirm design tools for microfluidic systems. To predict operating performance, models are developed for various components including two designs of a passive conduit valve and a passive mixing chamber. These are examined at different geometric scales and conditions using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to determine the dimensional effect on the available flow rates, secondary flows, and driving pressures. FEA predicts the characteristics of the microfluidic devices including diodicity and achievable flow rates.

Author(s):  
Kirk D. Gallier ◽  
Patrick B. Lawless ◽  
Sanford Fleeter

In high temperature turbines, air from disk cavities is forced through the vane-rotor seal to prevent hot gas ingress into these cavities. This emergent seal air can play a significant role in the formation of secondary flows which emanate from the hub region near the rotor blade leading edge. The formation of these structures is also dependent on the inherently unsteady flow field driven by the vane-rotor interaction. As these secondary flows play an important role in both blade performance and heat transfer, the physics that governs them is of significant interest in turbine aero and thermal design. This work investigates and characterizes the aerodynamic signature of the interaction between an emergent seal flow and the hub flow approaching the downstream rotor including the effects of vane-rotor interaction. This is accomplished by means of an experimental investigation performed on the first stage of the Purdue Research Turbine using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The flow field is interrogated in the near-hub region of the intra-stage space, downstream of the first vane row. Purge air is introduced through a planar seal at two different flow rates which characterize typical high and low boundaries for the range of dimensionless seal flow rates encountered in practice. Two-dimensional (radial and axial) velocity data from four measurement planes spaced from vane pressure side to mid-passage are acquired. These data are phase-locked to rotor position. The ensemble-averaged vorticity data from each of ten rotor positions provide a characterization of the effect of the rotor potential field on the emergent seal flow. Vane wake affects on purge strength and downstream flow development are captured at each of two seal flow rates.


2014 ◽  
Vol 137 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antti-Juhana Mäki ◽  
Samu Hemmilä ◽  
Juha Hirvonen ◽  
Nathaniel Narra Girish ◽  
Joose Kreutzer ◽  
...  

Passive pumping using gravity-driven flow is a fascinating approach for microfluidic systems. When designing a passive pumping system, generated flow rates should be known precisely. While reported models used to estimate the flow rates do not usually consider capillary forces, this paper shows that their exclusion is unrealistic in typical gravity-driven systems. Therefore, we propose a new analytical model to estimate the generated flow rates. An extensive set of measurements is used to verify that the proposed model provides a remarkably more precise approximation of the real flow rates compared to the previous models. It is suggested that the developed model should be used when designing a gravity-driven pumping system.


2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Posa ◽  
Antonio Lippolis ◽  
Elias Balaras

Turbopumps operating at reduced flow rates experience significant separation and backflow phenomena. Although Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) approaches proved to be usually able to capture the main flow features at design working conditions, previous numerical studies in the literature verified that eddy-resolving techniques are required in order to simulate the strong secondary flows generated at reduced loads. Here, highly resolved large-eddy simulations (LES) of a radial pump with a vaned diffuser are reported. The results are compared to particle image velocimetry (PIV) experiments in the literature. The main focus of the present work is to investigate the separation and backflow phenomena occurring at reduced flow rates. Our results indicate that the effect of these phenomena extends up to the impeller inflow: they involve the outer radii of the impeller vanes, influencing significantly the turbulent statistics of the flow. Also in the diffuser vanes, a strong spanwise evolution of the flow has been observed at the reduced load, with reverse flow, located mainly on the shroud side and on the suction side (SS) of the stationary channels, especially near the leading edge of the diffuser blades.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 446
Author(s):  
Ioannis Spanos ◽  
Zacharias Vangelatos ◽  
Costas Grigoropoulos ◽  
Maria Farsari

The need for control of the elastic properties of architected materials has been accentuated due to the advances in modelling and characterization. Among the plethora of unconventional mechanical responses, controlled anisotropy and auxeticity have been promulgated as a new avenue in bioengineering applications. This paper aims to delineate the mechanical performance of characteristic auxetic and anisotropic designs fabricated by multiphoton lithography. Through finite element analysis the distinct responses of representative topologies are conveyed. In addition, nanoindentation experiments observed in-situ through scanning electron microscopy enable the validation of the modeling and the observation of the anisotropic or auxetic phenomena. Our results herald how these categories of architected materials can be investigated at the microscale.


1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 735-742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. T. Lin ◽  
M. Choi ◽  
R. Greif

A study has been made of the deposition of particles that occurs during the modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) process. The three-dimensional conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy have been solved numerically for forced flow, including the effects of buoyancy and variable properties in a heated, rotating tube. The motion of the particles that are formed is determined from the combined effects resulting from thermophoresis and the forced and secondary flows. The effects of torch speed, rotational speed, inlet flow rate, tube radius, and maximum surface temperature on deposition are studied. In a horizontal tube, buoyancy results in circumferentially nonuniform temperature and velocity fields and particle deposition. The effect of tube rotation greatly reduces the nonuniformity of particle deposition in the circumferential direction. The process is chemical-reaction limited at larger flow rates and particle-transport limited at smaller flow rates. The vertical tube geometry has also been studied because its symmetric configuration results in uniform particle deposition in the circumferential direction. The “upward” flow condition results in a large overall deposition efficiency, but this is also accompanied by a large “tapered entry length.”


Author(s):  
Yo Han Jung ◽  
Young Uk Min ◽  
Jin Young Kim

This paper presents a numerical investigation of the effect of tip clearance on the suction performance and flow characteristics at different flow rates in a vertical mixed-flow pump. Numerical analyses were carried out by solving three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. Steady computations were performed for three different tip clearances under noncavitating and cavitating conditions at design and off-design conditions. The pump performance test was performed for the mixed-flow pump and numerical results were validated by comparing the experimental data for a system characterized by the original tip clearance. It was shown that for large tip clearance, the head breakdown occurred earlier at the design and high flow rates. However, the head breakdown was quite delayed at low flow rate. This resulted from the cavitation structure caused by the tip leakage flow at different flow rates.


Author(s):  
Jiaman Hong ◽  
Bo Wang ◽  
Xiaoqing Zhu ◽  
Zhichao Xiong ◽  
Yusen Huang ◽  
...  

In this paper, a novel embedded reflective grating (ERG) is presented to realize bi-function polarization operating at infrared band by finite element analysis (FEM). For transverse electric (TE) polarization, a two-port output (0th and −2nd orders) with an efficiency of more than 47% and excellent uniformity can be obtained. For transverse magnetic (TM) polarization, a high efficiency output of 94.72% can be achieved at the −2th order. The results of the analysis of the electric field intensity distribution, angular and wavelength bandwidths further demonstrate the advantages of the proposed grating. In addition, the tolerance analysis of period and duty cycle prove the feasibility of the grating in practical production.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-54
Author(s):  
Subhra Shankha Koley ◽  
Huang Chen ◽  
Ayush Saraswat ◽  
Joseph Katz

Abstract This experimental study characterizes the interactions of axial casing grooves with the flow in the tip region of an axial turbomachine. The tests involve grooves with the same inlet overlapping with the rotor blade leading edge, but with different exit directions located upstream. Among them, U grooves, whose circumferential outflow opposes the blade motion, achieve a 60% reduction in stall flowrate, but degrade the efficiency around the best efficiency point (BEP) by 2%. The S grooves, whose outlets are parallel to the blade rotation, improve the stall flowrate by only 36%, but do not degrade the BEP performance. To elucidate the mechanisms involved, stereo-PIV measurements covering the tip region and interior of grooves are performed in a refractive index matched facility. At low flow rates, the inflow into both grooves, which peaks when they are aligned with the blade pressure side, rolls up into a large vortex that lingers within the groove. By design, the outflow from S grooves is circumferentially positive. For the U grooves, fast circumferentially negative outflow peaks at the base of each groove, causing substantial periodic variations in the flow angle near the blade leading edge. At BEP, interactions with both grooves become milder, and most of the tip leakage vortex remains in the passage. Interactions with the S grooves are limited hence they do not degrade the efficiency. In contrast, the inflow into and outflow from the U grooves reverses direction, causing entrainment of secondary flows, which likely contribute to the reduced BEP efficiency.


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