Title :
Numerical simulations of electrokinetically generated micro vortices in microchannels
Author :
Ng, A.S.W. ; Hau, W.L.W. ; Lee, Y.-K. ; Zohar, Y.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Mech. Eng., Hong Kong Univ. of Sci. & Technol., Kowloon, China
Abstract :
The technology developed to micro-pattern the electric surface charge to be negative, positive or neutral enables the realization of complex liquid flows in simple microchannels. A commercial CFD code is utilized to numerically simulate a variety of electrokinetically-generated liquid flows in a straight and uniform microchannel due to non-uniform surface charge distributions under a single, externally applied electric field. Design methodologies to generate vortical flow in any desired direction are presented. In particular, surface charge patterns required to generate single or multi, co-rotating or counter-rotating, in-plane or out-of-plane vortices are investigated.
Keywords :
channel flow; computational fluid dynamics; electrokinetic effects; microfluidics; surface charging; vortices; CFD; co-rotating vortices; complex liquid flows; counter rotating vortices; electric field; electrokinetically generated microvortices; electrokinetically-generated liquid flows; inplane vortices; microchannels; micropattern; nonuniform electric surface charge distributions; numerical analysis; vortical flow; Computational fluid dynamics; Design methodology; Fluid flow; Geometry; Lab-on-a-chip; Mechanical engineering; Microchannel; Microfluidics; Nonuniform electric fields; Numerical simulation;
Conference_Titel :
TRANSDUCERS, Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems, 12th International Conference on, 2003
Conference_Location :
Boston, MA, USA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7731-1
DOI :
10.1109/SENSOR.2003.1217159
