NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION ON BOTTOM GAP OF MICRO FLOW SENSOR

Micro sensor is very useful for flow measurements in a number of engineering applications. Especially, it is necessary for the development of MEMS. This paper presents the 3D numerical simulation of flows around a micro flow sensor, which is mounted on a flat plate. The effects of the sensor configuration (i.e. bottom gap) and the Reynolds number on the flow field are numerically investigated. The numerical results indicate that the bottom gap clearly affects the flow fields over the top surface of the sensor. The Reynolds numbers also show a significant influence on the flow nature, especially on the recirculation zone at downstream of the sensor. The present results illustrate a certain improvement on the flow field for the sensor installed at O.5mm above the wall with four pillars, comparing with that directly mounted on the wall.