• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.89-95
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• 2012

In this paper, microchannels for the flow control of two fluids with different volumes have been designed, fabricated, and verified. The dimensions of the inlets were determined based on the Stokes equation in order to realize that the flow of the two fluids meet at the same time, and to maintain a certain configuration when the flows passed through each inlet channel. The designed microchannels were confirmed using computational fluid dynamics simulation for the incompressible, Newtonian, and transient flows. In addition, a microfluidic system containing the designed microchannels was fabricated by soft lithography, and the pressure-driven flows of the two fluids were characterized by microfluidic experiments.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.2 s.245
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• pp.110-116
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• 2006

A syringe pump or a device using high electric voltage has been used for controlling flows inside a LOC (lab-on-a-chip). Compared to LOC, however, these microfluidic devices are large and heavy that they are burdensome for a portable ${\mu}-TAS$ (micro total analysis system). In this study, a new flow control technique employing pressure regulators and pressure chambers was developed. This technique utilizes compressed air to control the micro-scale flow inside a LOC, instead of a mechanical actuator or an electric power supply. The pressure regulator controls the output air pressure by adjusting the variable resistor attached. We checked the feasibility of this system by measuring the flow rate inside a capillary tube of $100{\mu}m$ diameter in the Re numbers ranged from 0.5 to 50. In addition, the performance of this flow control system was compared with that of a conventional syringe pump. The developed flow control system was found to show superior performance, compared with the syringe pump. It maintains automatically the: air pressure inside a pressure chamber whether the flow inside the capillary tube is on or off. Since the flow rate is nearly proportional to the resistance, we can control flow in multiple microchannels precisely. However, the syringe pump shows large variation of flow rate when the fluid flow is blocked in the microchannel.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.1015-1021
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• 2004

Micro-resolution Particle Image Velocimetry(Micro-PIV) was used to measure the flow in a micro-branch(Micro-Bypass). In this paper, effects of particle lump at the tip of a Micro-branch and difficulties of Micro-PIV measurements for microfluidics with branch passage were described. Micro-bypass was composed of a straight channel(200(100)${\mu}$m width ${\times}$ 80${\mu}$m height) and two branches which has 100(50)${\mu}$m width ${\times}$ 80${\mu}$m height. One of branches was straight and the other was curved. Experiments were performed at three regions along streamwise direction(entrance, middle and exit of branch) and five planes along vertical direction (0, ${\pm}$10, ${\pm}$20 ${\mu}$m) for the range of Re=0.24, 1.2, 2.4. Numerical simulation was done to compare with the measurements and understand the effects of particle lump at the tip of branch. And another fluid(3% poly vinyl Alcohol aqueous solution) were adapted for this study, so there were no particle sticking. In this case, we could get velocity difference between straight and curved branches.

• 한국가시화정보학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.79-84
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• 2002

Most microfluidic devices such as heat sinks for cooling micro-chips, DNA chip, Lab-On-Chip, and micro pumps etc. have microchannels of various size. Therefore, the design of practical microfluidics demands detail information on flow structure inside the microchannels. However, detail velocity field measurements are rare and difficult to carry out. In addition, as the microfluidics expands, accurate understanding of microscale transport phenomena becomes very important. In this research, micro-PIV system was employed to measure the velocity fields of flow inside a micro-channel. We carried out PIV measurements for several microchannels with varying channels width, inlet and outlet shape, filters, CCD camera and ICCD camera, etc. For effective composition of micro-PIV system, first of all, it is essential to understand optics related with micro-imaging of particles and the particle dynamics encountered in micro-scale channel flows. In addition, it is necessary to find the optimal condition for given experimental environment and? micro-scale flow to be investigated. The problems encountered in measuring velocity field of micro-channel flows are discussed in this paper.

• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.83-90
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• 2003

In cases of the microfluidic channel, the electrokinetic influence on the transport behavior can be found. The externally applied body force originated from the electrostatic interaction between the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann field and the flow-induced electrical field is applied in the equation of motion. The electrostatic potential profile is computed a priori by applying the finite difference scheme, and an analytical solution to the Navier-Stokes equation of motion for slit-like microchannel is obtained via the Green's function. An explicit analytical expression for the induced electrokinetic potential is derived as functions of relevant physicochemical parameters. The effects of the electric double layer, the zeta potential of the solid surface, and the charge condition of the channel wall on the velocity profile as well as the electroviscous behavior are examined. With increases in either electric double layer or zeta potential, the average fluid velocity in the channel of same charge is entirely reduced, whereas the electroviscous effect becomes stronger. We observed an opposite behavior in the channel of opposite charge, where the attractive electrostatic interactions are presented.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.671-677
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• 2010

In the present study, we designed a microfluidic platform for generating monodisperse droplets with diameters ranging from hundreds of nanometers to several micrometers. To generate fine droplets, T-junction and flow-focusing geometry are integrated into the microfluidic channel. Relatively large aqueous droplets are generated at the upstream T-junction and transported to the flow-focusing geometry, where each droplet is broken into smaller droplets of the desired size by the action of pressure and viscous stress. In this configuration, the flow rate of the inner fluid can be made very low, and the ratio of the inner- and outer-fluid flow rates in the flow-focusing region can be made very high. It has been shown that the present microfluidic device can generate droplets with diameters of approximately $1\;{\mu}m$ (standard deviation: <3%).

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.1172-1182
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• 2002

In the present study a general criterion for local thermal equilibrium is presented in terms of parameters of engineering importance which include the Darcy number, the effective Prandtl number of fluid, and the Reynolds number. For this, an order of magnitude analysis is performed for the case when the effect of convection heat transfer is dominant in a porous structure. The criterion proposed in this study is more general than the previous criterion suggested by Carbonell and Whitaker, because the latter is applicable only when conduction is the dominant heat transfer mode in a porous medium while the former can be applied even when convection heat transfer prevails. In order to check the validity of the proposed criterion for local thermal equilibrium, the forced convection phenomena in a porous medium with a microchanneled structure subject to an impinging jet are studied using a similarity transformation. The proposed criterion is also validated with the existing experimental and numerical results for convection heat transfer in various porous materials that include some of the parameters used in the criterion such as a microchannel heat sink with a parallel flow, a packed bed, a cellular ceramic, and a sintered metal. It is shown that the criterion presented in this work well-predicts the validity of the assumption of local thermal equilibrium in a porous medium.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.239-247
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• 2001

The Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorter (FACS) is a well-established instrument used for identifying, enumerating, classifying and sorting cells by their physical and optical characteristics. For a miniaturized FACS device, a disposable plastic microchip has been developed which has a hydrodynamic focusing chamber using soft lithography. As the characteristics of the spatially confined sample stream have an effect on sample throughput, detection efficiency, and the accuracy of cell sorting, systematic fluid dynamic studies are required. Flow visualization is conducted with a laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM), and three-dimensional flow structure of the focused sample stream is reconstructed from 2D slices acquired at $1\mutextrm{m}$ intervals in depth. It was observed that the flow structure in the focusing chamber is skewed by unsymmetrical velocity profile arising from trapezoidal cross section of the microchannel. For a quantitative analysis of a microscopic flow structure, Confocal Micro-PIV system has been developed to evaluate the accelerated flow field in the focusing chamber. This study proposes a method which defines the depth of the measurement volume using a detection pinhole. The trajectories of red blood cells (RBCs) and their interactions with surrounding flow field in the squeezed sample stream are evaluated to find optimal shape of the focusing chamber and fluid manipulation scheme for stable cell transporting, efficient detection, and sorting

• BioChip Journal
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.257-267
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• 2018

Inertial microfluidics has attracted significant attention in recent years due to its superior benefits of high throughput, precise control, simplicity, and low cost. Many inertial microfluidic applications have been demonstrated for physiological sample processing, clinical diagnostics, and environmental monitoring and cleanup. In this review, we discuss the fundamental mechanisms and principles of inertial migration and Dean flow, which are the basis of inertial microfluidics, and provide basic scaling laws for designing the inertial microfluidic devices. This will allow end-users with diverse backgrounds to more easily take advantage of the inertial microfluidic technologies in a wide range of applications. A variety of recent applications are also classified according to the structure of the microchannel: straight channels and curved channels. Finally, several future perspectives of employing fluid inertia in microfluidic-based cell sorting are discussed. Inertial microfluidics is still expected to be promising in the near future with more novel designs using various shapes of cross section, sheath flows with different viscosities, or technologies that target micron and submicron bioparticles.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.18-29
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• 2009

미세유동에 대한 폭발적인 관심에 의해 이 분야의 연구는 다양한 측면에서 이루어지고 있다. 본 연구는 사각 미세채널에서의 슬립유동에 관한 연구 중 아직 제대로 이루어져 있지 않은 마찰특성에 관한 종횡비의 영향에 초점을 맞추어 3차원 수치해석을 행하였다. 그 결과 종횡비가 1.0 일 때 상하 벽면 및 좌우측 벽면에서의 전단음력은 동일하나, 종횡비가 감소함에 따라 전단응력은 상하 벽면과 좌우측 벽면이 상이한 강도로 증가함을 보였다. 또한 Knudsen 수의 증가에 따라서는 전단응력이 감소함을 알 수 있었다. 따라서 벽면에서의 전단응력은 종횡비를 증가시키거나 혹은 Knudsen 수를 증가시키면 감소시킬 수 있으며, 마찰계수(fRe)도 종횡비를 증가시키거나 혹은 Knudsen 수를 증가시키면 감소됨을 밝혔다.