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Physical Intelligence Article 2018

Thermocapillary-driven fluid flow within microchannels

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Physical Intelligence
Guillermo Amador
Assistant Professor at Wageningen University, Netherlands
Thumb ticker sm ahmet
Physical Intelligence
Ahmet Fatih Tabak
  • Postdoctoral Researcher
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Physical Intelligence
Ziyu Ren
Postdoctoral Researcher
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Physical Intelligence
Yunus Alapan
Senior Research Scientist at Aselsan, Turkey
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Physical Intelligence
Oncay Yasa
Post-doc at ETH Zurich, Switzerland
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Physical Intelligence
Metin Sitti
Guest Researcher
Screenshot 2018 5 9 1802 00475 pdf

Surface tension gradients induce Marangoni flow, which may be exploited for fluid transport. At the micrometer scale, these surface-driven flows can be more significant than those driven by pressure. By introducing fluid-fluid interfaces on the walls of microfluidic channels, we use surface tension gradients to drive bulk fluid flows. The gradients are specifically induced through thermal energy, exploiting the temperature dependence of a fluid-fluid interface to generate thermocapillary flow. In this report, we provide the design concept for a biocompatible, thermocapillary microchannel capable of being powered by solar irradiation. Using temperature gradients on the order of degrees Celsius per centimeter, we achieve fluid velocities on the order of millimeters per second. Following experimental observations, fluid dynamic models, and numerical simulation, we find that the fluid velocity is linearly proportional to the provided temperature gradient, enabling full control of the fluid flow within the microchannels.

Author(s): Guillermo J Amador and Ahmet Fatih Tabak and Ziyu Ren and Yunus Alapan and Oncay Yasa and Metin Sitti
Journal: ArXiv e-prints
Year: 2018
Month: February
Day: 1
Bibtex Type: Article (article)
URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.00475
Electronic Archiving: grant_archive
Eprint: 1802.00475

BibTex 

@article{2018arXiv180200475A,
  title = {Thermocapillary-driven fluid flow within microchannels},
  journal = {ArXiv e-prints},
  abstract = {Surface tension gradients induce Marangoni flow, which may be exploited for fluid transport. At the micrometer scale, these surface-driven flows can be more significant than those driven by pressure. By introducing fluid-fluid interfaces on the walls of microfluidic channels, we use surface tension gradients to drive bulk fluid flows. The gradients are specifically induced through thermal energy, exploiting the temperature dependence of a fluid-fluid interface to generate thermocapillary flow. In this report, we provide the design concept for a biocompatible, thermocapillary microchannel capable of being powered by solar irradiation. Using temperature gradients on the order of degrees Celsius per centimeter, we achieve fluid velocities on the order of millimeters per second. Following experimental observations, fluid dynamic models, and numerical simulation, we find that the fluid velocity is linearly proportional to the provided temperature gradient, enabling full control of the fluid flow within the microchannels. },
  month = feb,
  year = {2018},
  slug = {2018arxiv180200475a},
  author = {Amador, Guillermo J and Tabak, Ahmet Fatih and Ren, Ziyu and Alapan, Yunus and Yasa, Oncay and Sitti, Metin},
  eprint = {1802.00475},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.00475},
  month_numeric = {2}
}