Abstract
Constructing a micro-sized microfluidic motor always involves the problem of how to transfer the mechanical energy out of the motor. The paper presents several experiments with pot-like microfluidic rotational motor structures driven by two perpendicular sine and cosine vibrations with amplitudes around 10 μm in the frequency region from 200 Hz to 500 Hz. The extensive theoretical research based on the mathematical model of the liquid streaming in a pot-like structure was the base for the successful real-life laboratory application of a microfluidic rotational motor. The final microfluidic motor structure allowed transferring the rotational mechanical energy out of the motor with a central axis. The main practical challenge of the research was to find the proper balance between the torque, due to friction in the bearings and the motor’s maximal torque. The presented motor, with sizes 1 mm by 0.6 mm, reached the maximal rotational speed in both directions between −15 rad/s to +14 rad/s, with the estimated maximal torque of 0.1 pNm. The measured frequency characteristics of vibration amplitudes and phase angle between the directions of both vibrational amplitudes and rotational speed of the motor rotor against frequency of vibrations, allowed us to understand how to build the pot-like microfluidic rotational motor.
Highlights
Constructing a micro-sized microfluidic motor always involves the problem of how to transfer the mechanical energy out of the motor
The miniaturized microfluidic rotational motors have been at the forefront of the research efforts of scientists and engineers who have been developing micro rotational motors as a part of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) for more than three decades
The same approach was used in Hayakawa et al [12], but the circular vibration was used for the calculation of steady term ψst .We followed the development of a solution of stream function based differential equations for the motion of incompressible viscous fluid in a two-dimensional space under assumption that the fluid obeys linear vibration
Summary
Constructing a micro-sized microfluidic motor always involves the problem of how to transfer the mechanical energy out of the motor. −15 rad/s to +14 rad/s, with the estimated maximal torque of 0.1 pNm. The measured frequency characteristics of vibration amplitudes and phase angle between the directions of both vibrational amplitudes and rotational speed of the motor rotor against frequency of vibrations, allowed us to understand how to build the pot-like microfluidic rotational motor. The first microfluidic rotational motors, published in the 1990s [1], had rotary gear trains made on the silicon rotor (diameter 60 μm to 1600 μm). They were built into microsized channels, where fluidic linear stream of liquids was used as the driving forces for the gears. The rotary gear trains with the rotor were closed in a micro-sized channel, and the rotational mechanical power could not be transferred outside the micro-sized channel
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