More than a decade of research work in optofluidics has yielded a large catalogue of optofluidic elements that can manipulate light at the micro-scale (e.g., lenses, prisms). Although these elements have proven useful for many on-chip processes (e.g., miniaturized flow cytometry, interferometry and sample spectroscopy), certain deficiencies have precluded their use in micro-scale imaging. Howev...

in this research, the effect of micro turbulence on the flotation rate of quartz particles was investigated. the maximum particle reynolds number (rep) was obtained at 60.25 with a particle size of -500+420 µm, impeller speed of 900 rpm, bubble surface area flux of 10.21 1/s and micro scale turbulence size of 162 µm. when the micro turbulence size was equal to the particle size, the maximum flo...

We have designed a micromachined micro Coriolis flow sensor for the measurement of hydrazine (N2H4, High Purity Grade) propellant flow in micro chemical propulsion systems [1]. The sensor measures mass flow up to 6 mg/s for a single thruster or up to 24 mg/s for four thrusters. The sensor will first be used for measurement and characterization of the micro thruster system in a simulated space v...

Incorporating the velocity slip effect of the gas flow at the solid boundary, the performance and dynamic response of a micro gas-bearing-rotor system are investigated in this paper. For the characteristic length scale of the micro gas bearing, the gas flow in the bearing resides in the slip regime rather than in the continuum regime. The modified Reynolds equations of different slip models are...

INTRODUCTION trying to control the environment experienced by individual Control of the cellular environment is crucial for undercells lie in the relevant scales of size as well as the character ding the behavior of cells and for engineering cellular of the stimuli. These scales of size range from angstroms (for ction (Jiang and Whitesides, 2003; Whitesides etal., 2001; molecular detail), throu...

Several LIGA (Lithography Galvonoforming Abforming) test mechanisms have been designed and fabricated to study tribology and performance attributes of LIGA mechanisms. The LIGA test mechanism studied in this paper is a ratchet drive mechanism consisting primarily of pawls, cams, and springs ranging in size from about one-half millimeter to tens of millimeters of various nickel alloys fabricated...

The field of microfluidics has become increasingly important with the development of micro-fuel cells, DNA arrays, and various advancements towards the labon-a-chip concept. While researchers have proposed many methods of mixing, there has been no standardized comparison on the mixing efficiency of the proposed methods in literature. In this paper, the students implemented an image-based techni...

Biomining, the use of micro-organisms to recover precious and base metals from mineral ores and concentrates, has developed into a successful and expanding area of biotechnology. While careful considerations are made in the design and engineering of biomining operations, microbiological aspects have been subjected to far less scrutiny and control. Biomining processes employ microbial consortia ...

The superhydrophobic surface is widely used to reduce friction for the flow inside micro-channel and can be used to control/manipulate fluid, cells and even proteins in lab-on-chip. Fabricating micro grooves on hydrophobic surfaces is a common method to obtain such superhydrophobic surface. This study utilized the numerical method to investigate the effect of eccentric micro-grooves on the fric...

We derive the thin film approximation including roughness-induced correctors. This corresponds to the description of a confined Stokes flow whose thickness is of order ε (designed to be small) ; but we also take into account the roughness patterns of the boundary that are described at order ε, leading to a perturbation of the classical Reynolds approximation. The asymptotic expansion leading to...