• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.1844-1852
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• 2001

Recent developments in microfluidic devices based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technique find many practical applications, which include electronic chip cooling devices, power MEMS devices, micro sensors, and bio-medical devices among others. For the design of such micro devices, flows characteristics inside a microchannel have to be clarified which exhibit somewhat different characteristics compared to conventional flows in a macrochannel. In the present study microchannels of various hydraulic diameters are fabricated on a silicon wafer to study the pressure drop characteristics. The effect of abrupt contraction and expansion is also studied. It is found from the results that the friction factor in a straight microchannel is about 15% higher than that in a conventional macrochannel, and the loss coefficients in abrupt expansion and contraction are about 10% higher than that obtained through conventional flow analysis.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.710-718
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• 2010

A numerical study was performed to predict refrigerant charge amount in a mini-channel condenser for a R410A residential air-conditioning system. Multi-channel flat tubes with 12 mini-channels of 1.17 mm average hydraulic diameter for each tube were applied to the condenser. The condenser consisted of 3 passes, and the first, second, and third pass had 44, 19, and 11 tubes, respectively. Each pass was connected by a vertical header. In this study, the condenser was divided into 410 finite volumes, and analyzed by an $\varepsilon$-NTU method. With thermophysical properties and void fraction models for each volume element, the R410A amount distribution and a total charge amount in the condenser were calculated. The predicted total charge amount was compared with the experimentally measured charge amount under a standard ARI A condition. The developed model could predict the charge amount in the mini-channel condenser within prediction errors from -23.9% to -3.0%. Air velocity distribution at the condenser face was considered as non-uniform and uniform by the simulation model, and its results showed that the air velocity distribution could significantly influence the charge amount and vapor phase distribution in the condenser.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.400-404
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• 2001

A micro-PIV(particle image velocimetry) measurement has been conducted to investigate flow fields in such microfluidic devices as microchannels and micronozzle. The present study employs a state-of-art micro-PIV system which consists of epi-fluorescence microscope, 620nm diameter fluorescent seed particles and an 8-bit megapixel CCD camera. Velocity vector fields with a resolution of $6.7\times6.7{\mu}m$ has been obtained, and the attention has been paid on the effect of varying measurement conditions of particle diameter and particle concentration on the resulting PIV results. In this study, the microfluidic elements were fabricated on plastic chips by means of MEMS processes and a subsequent molding process. Flow fields in a variety of microchannels as well as micronozzle have been investigated.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2002.08a
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• pp.419-422
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• 2002

A three-dimensional inlet flow structure inside a microfluidic element has been investigated using a micro-PIV(particle image velocimetry) measurement as well as a numerical analysis. The present study employs a state-of-art micro-PIV system which consists of epi-fluorescence microscope, 620nm diameter fluorescent seed particles and an 8-bit megapixel CCD camera. For the numerical analysis, a commercial software CFD-ACE+(V6.6) was employed for comparison with experimental data. Fixed pressure boundary condition and a 39900 structured grid system was used for numerical analysis. Velocity vector fields with a resolution of $6.7{\times}6.7{\mu}m$ has been obtained, and the attention has been paid on the effect of varying measurement conditions of particle diameter and particle concentration on the resulting PIV results. In this study, the microfluidic elements were fabricated on plastic chips by means of MEMS processes and a subsequent melding process.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.1528-1533
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• 2004

A numerical investigation is made of transient evolutionary prcocess of electroosmotic flow in a two-dimensional microchannel connected to a reservoir. The channel height is very small so that two electric double layers forming on the charged surfaces are overlapped. Transient transports of ions in the electrolyte solution are computed by integrating the Nernst-Planck equation together with the Poisson equation for electric potential. The numerical results illustrate that there are two distinct transient phases. The physical mechanisms and relevant time scales for the transient evolution are described.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1549-1556
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• 2004

We have deigned, fabricated and compared four different types of static chaos microfluid mixers, including the mixers using straight channel flow, microblock-induced alternating whirl flow, microchannel-induced lamination flow, and combined alternating whirl-lamination flow. Among them, the alternating whirl-lamination (AWL-type) mixer, composed of 3-D rotationally arranged microblocks and dividing microchannels fabricated by conventional planar lithography process, is effective to reduce the mixing length over wide flow rate ranges. We characterize the performance of the fabricated mixers, through the flow visualization technique using phenolphthalein solution. We verify that the AWL-type microfluid mixer shows the shortest fluid mixing length of 2.8mm∼5.8mm for the flow rate range of Re=0.26∼26 with the pressure drop lower than 5kPa. Compared to the previous mixers, requiring the mixing lengths of 7∼17mm, the AWL-type microfluid mixer results in the 60% reduction of the mixing lengths. Due to the reduced mixing lengths within reasonable pressure drop ranges, the present micromixers have potentials for use in the miniaturized Micro-Total-Analysis-Systems($\mu$TAS).

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.1990-1997
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• 1992

The characteristic of supersonic flow with condensation along a wavy wall of small amplitude in channel is investigated through the direct marching method of characteristics. The very complex problem that may appear where the overlapping of the same family characteristics occurs, can be satisfactorily solved by means of the modified method suggested by Zucrow. In the present study for the case of supersonic moist air flow, the dependency of location of formation and reflection of oblique shock wave generated by the wavy wall, and the distributions of flow properties, on the relative humidity and temperature at the entrance of wavy wall is clarified by plots of streamline, ios-Mach umber and ios-flow properties. Also, it is confirmed that the wavy wall plays an important key role in the formation of oblique shock wave, and that the effect of condensation on the flow field appears apparently.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.334-340
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• 2000

This paper presents the fabrication of a micro electromagnetic flow sensor for the liquid flow rate measurement. The micro electromagnetic flow sensor has some advantages such as a simple structure, no heat generation, a rapid response and no pressure loss. The principle of the micro electromagnetic flow sensor is based on Faraday's law. If conductive fluid passes through a magnetic field, the electromotive force is generated and detected by two electrodes on the wall of the flow channel. The flow sensor consists of two permanent magnets and a silicon flow channel with two electrodes. The dimension of the flow sensor is $9\;mm\;{\times}\;9\;mm\;{\times}\;1\;mm$. The micro flow channel is mainly fabricated by anisotropic etching of two silicon wafers, and the detection electrodes are fabricated by metal evaporation process. The characteristic of the fabricated flow sensor is obtained experimentally. When the flow rates of water with the conductance of $100-200\;{\mu}S/cm$ are 9.1 ml/min and 62 ml/min, the generated electromotive forces are $261\;{\mu}V$ and 7.3 mV, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.844-849
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• 2008

We present a novel cell deformability monitoring chip based on the digitally measured cell lysis rate which is dependent on the areal strain of the cell membrane. This method offers simple cell deformability monitoring by automated high-throughput testing system. We suggest the filter design considering the areal strain imposed on the cell membrane passing through the filter array having gradually increased orifice length. In the experiment using erythrocytes, we characterized the cell deformability in terms of average fracture areal strain which was $0.24{\pm}0.014\;and\;0.21{\pm}0.002$ for normal and chemically treated erythrocytes, respectively. We also verified that the areal strain of 0.15 effectively discriminates the deformability difference of normal and chemically treated erythrocytes, which can be applied to the clinical situation. We compared the lysis rates and their difference for the samples from different donors and found that the present chips can be commonly used without any calibration process. The experimental results demonstrate the simple structure and high performance of the present cell deformability monitoring chips, applicable to simple and cost-effective cell aging process monitoring.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1582-1589
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• 1994

The characteristics Prandt1-Meyer expansion of supersonic flow with condensation through a wavy wall in a channel are investigated by experiment and numerical direct marching method of characteristics. In the present study, for the case of moist air flow in the type of indraft supersonic wind tunnel, the dependency of location of formation and reflection of the oblique shock wave generated by the wavy wall and the distribution of flow properties, on the specific humidity and temperature at the entrance of wavy wall and the attack angle of the wavy wall to the main stream is clarified by schlieren photograph, distribution of static pressure and Mach number, and plots of numerical results. Also, we confirm that the wavy wall plays an important key role in the formation of oblique shock wave, and that the effect of condensation on the flow field appears apparently.