• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.29 no.6 s.237
• /
• pp.904-912
• /
• 2005

The flow in a microchannel is usually characterized as a low Reynolds number (Re) so that good mixing is quite difficult to be achieved. In this regard, we developed a novel chaotic micromixer, named Barrier Embedded Kenics Micromixer (BEKM). In the BEKM, the higher level of chaotic mixing can be achieved by combining two general chaotic mixing mechanisms: (i) splitting/reorientation by helical elements inside the microchannel and (ii) stretching/folding via periodically located barriers on the channel wall. The fully three-dimensional geometry of BEKM was realized by a micro-stereolithography technology, in this study, along with a Kenics micromixer and a circular T-pipe. Mixing performances of three micromixers were experimentally characterized in terms of an average mixing color intensity of phenolphthalein. Experimental results show that BEKM has better mixing performance than other two micromixers. Chaotic mixing mechanism, proposed in this study, could be integrated as a mixing component with Micro-Total-Analysis-System, Lab-on-a-chip and so on.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.410-420
• /
• 2016

The geometric dimension and shape of microchannels that are formed during surface texturing are widely studied for applications in flow control, and drag and friction reduction. In this research, a new method for controlling the deformation of U channels during micro-rolling-based surface texturing was developed. Since the width of the U channels is almost constant, controlling the depth is essential. A calibration procedure of initial rolling gap, and proportional-integral PI controllers and a linear interpolation have been applied simultaneously to control the depth. The PI controllers drive the position of the pre-U grooved roll as well as the rolling gap. The relationship between the channel depth and rolling gap is linearized to create a feedback signal in the depth control system. The depth of micro channels is studied on A2021 aluminum lamina surfaces. Overall, the experimental results demonstrated the feasibility of the method for controlling the depth of microchannels.

• Design & Manufacturing
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.51-55
• /
• 2017

Micro fuel cells have high reliability and long usage time. Among them, PEMFC (polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell) is suitable as a portable power source because it is easy to fix electrolyte and simple structure. The bipolar plate, a key component of the fuel cell, is produced by cutting. In the case of micro fuel cell separator, burr is very small and the flow channel size in the separator is very small. Therefore, it is difficult to remove burrs in the usual way such as a brushing or ultra-sonic method. Therefore, this study proposed electrolytic polishing process and analyzed the characteristics of each condition by introducing the concept of roughness reduction rate. In addition, the ultrasonic process was added to analyze the effect of ultrasonic addition.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.28 no.12
• /
• pp.1549-1556
• /
• 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 B
• /
• v.41 no.11
• /
• pp.767-773
• /
• 2017

Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger (PCHE) has an advantage for exchanging thermal energy between high-pressure and high-temperature fluids because its core is made by diffusion bonding method of accumulated metal thin-plates which are engraved of flow channel. Moreover, because it is possible that the flow channel can be micro-size hydraulic diameter, the heat transfer area per unit volume can be made larger than traditional heat exchanger. Therefore, PCHE can have higher efficiency of heat transfer. The smaller channel size can make the larger heat transfer area per unit volume. But if high pressure fluid flows inside the channel, the channel wall can be deformed, the structure and shape of flow channel and header have to be designed appropriately. In this study, the design methodology of PCHE channel in high pressure environment based on pressure vessel codes was investigated. And this methodology was validated by computational analysis.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
• /
• v.20 no.12
• /
• pp.2250-2264
• /
• 2006

In micro- and nanoflows, the Boltzmann distribution is valid only when the electric double layers (EDL's) are not overlapped and the ionic distributions establish an equilibrium state. The present study has numerically investigated unsteady two-dimensional fully-developed electroosmotic flows between two parallel flat plates in the nonoverlapped and overlapped EDL cases, without any assumption of the Boltzmann distribution. For the study, two kinds of unsteady flows are considered: one is the impulsive application of a constant electric field and the other is the application of a sinusoidally oscillating electric field. For the numerical simulations, the ionic-species and electric-field equations as well as the continuity and momentum ones are solved. Numerical simulations are successful in accurately predicting unsteady electroosmotic flows and ionic distributions. Results show that the nonoverlapped and overlapped cases are totally different in their basic characteristics. This study would contribute to further understanding unsteady electroosmotic flows in micro- and nanofluidic devices.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.95-101
• /
• 2022

Microfluidic radioimmunoassay (RIA) platform called µ-RIA spends less reagent and shorter reaction time for the analysis compared to the conventional tube-based radioimmunoassay. This study reported the design of µ-RIA chips optimized for the gamma counter which could measure the small samples of radioactive materials automatically. Compared with the previous study, the µ-RIA chips developed in this study were designed to be compatible with conventional RIA test tubes. And, the automatic gamma counter could detect radioactivity from the ¹²⁵I labeled anti-PSA attached to the chips. Effects of the multi-layer microchannels and two-phase flow in the µ-RIA chips were investigated in this study. The measured radioactivity from the ¹²⁵I labeled anti-PSA was linearly proportional to the number of stacked chips, representing that the radioactivity in µ-RIA platform could be amplified by designing the chips with multi-layers. In addition, we designed µ-RIA chip to generate liquid-gas plug flow inside the microfluidic channel. The plug flow can promote binding of the biomolecules onto the microfluidic channel surface with recirculation in the liquid phase. The ratio of liquid slug and air slug length was 1 : 1 when the ¹²⁵I labeled anti-PSA and the air were injected at 1 and 35 µL/min, respectively, exhibiting 1.6 times higher biomolecule attachment compared to the microfluidic chip without the air injection. This experimental result indicated that the biomolecular reaction was improved by generating liquid-gas slugs inside the microfluidic channel. In this study, we presented a novel µ-RIA chips that is compatible with the conventional gamma counter with automated sampler. Therefore, high-throughput radioimmunoassay can be carried out by the automatic measurement of radioactivity with reduced radiowaste generation. We expect the µ-RIA platform can successfully replace conventional tube-based radioimmunoassay in the future.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.32 no.8
• /
• pp.624-632
• /
• 2008

In this research, we developed new PDMS-glass based microbiochip consisted of the micromixer and microreactor for DNA ligation. The micromixer was composed of a straight channel integrated with nozzles and pillars, and the microreactor was composed of a serpentine channel. We coated the PDMS chip surface with the 0.25wt.% PVP solution to prevent the bubble generation which was caused by the hydrophobicity of the PDMS. The new micomixer was passive type and the mixing was enhanced by a convective diffusion using the nozzle and pillar. The 10.33mm long micromixer showed the good mixing efficiency of 87.7% at 500 l/min flow rate. We could perform the DNA ligation successfully in the microbiochip, and the ligation time was shortened from 4 hours in conventional laboratory method to 5 min in the microbiochip.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
• /
• v.2 no.4
• /
• pp.253-258
• /
• 2002

This paper reports the design, modeling, fabrication and measurement of passive microvalves, which are applicable to glaucoma implants. The proposed microvalves were designed using fluidic theory. The microvalves consisted of microchannels and chambers. The microchannels had a constant fluidic resistance generating a pressure difference. Six kinds of microvalves were designed using fluidic equations for laminar flow and fabricated to examine the influences of chamber size, channel length and the shape of channel cross section. The pressure difference between the designed microvalve and the fabricated microvalve was measured to be less than 4%.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
• /
• v.11 no.4 s.35
• /
• pp.101-106
• /
• 2006

In the microfluidic devices the most important thing is mixing efficiency ol various fluids. In this study a newly designed miler is proposed to enhance the mixing effect with the purpose to apply it to microchannel mixing in a short future. This design is composed of a channel with cross baffles periodically arranged on the both bottom and top surfaces ol the channel. To obtain the yow patterns, the numerical computation was performed by using a commercial code, ANSYS CFX 10.0. To evaluate the mixing performance, we computed Lyapunov exponent and obtained Poincare sections. it was shown that our design provides the excellent mixing effect.