A Compliance-Based Microflow Stabilizer

作者：Yang Bozhi^*; Lin Qiao

来源：Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 2009, 18(3): 539-546.

DOI：10.1109/JMEMS.2009.2021826

• Compliant membrane
• flow rectification
• flow stabilization
• fluid-structure interaction
• lumped-parameter model

This paper presents a microfluidic device that can passively reduce fluctuations in an upstream fluid flow and generate a largely steady How in a microfluidic system. The device features a series of compliant membranes that form deformable walls of a microchannel. For an incoming pulsatile flow, passive vibrations of the membranes allow the fluid to be accumulated for an overflow and discharged for an underflow, resulting in drastically reduced fluctuations in How rate and pressure. A lumped-parameter model is developed to simulate the device characteristics, in which the coupling of membrane vibrations and fluid flow in individual channel sections associated with a single membrane is first represented by squeeze-film theory and inertia-free structural dynamics. The entire device is next represented as a system by connecting individual channel sections in series. The model is numerically solved, and the results agree with experiments. The theoretical and experimental results both show that a five-membrane device can stabilize a pulsating flow by a factor of about 20. These results also reveal that smaller average flow rate, smaller fluctuation, and higher fluctuation frequency lead to more effective flow stabilization. With these characteristics, the How stabilizer can be used to obtain steady How in microfluidic systems. [2008-0305]

• 出版日期2009-6