Maier C., Hofer E.P.
University of Ulm, DE
Keywords: CFD code evaluation, free surface flow, high speed visualization, microfluidic systems
Surface forces and capillary effects can play a dominant role in fluidic microsystems. Therefore it is crucial for simulations to use accurate numerical approaches [1]. Furthermore experimental data gained from such surface dominated systems can be used to test different numerical methods for dealing with moving boundary problems. This paper presents the real-time visualization of collisions of water microdroplets on an inclined steal plate. This model experiment shows the features of wetting and dynamic contact angles. The frame of 8 images recorded with a multi channel high-speed camera coupled to an optical microscope is treated by specially developed digital image processing tools to correct geometrical distortions and to extract object features. The above mentioned experiment is compared to the simulation results obtained with a commercial code [2] which uses the VOF algorithm [3].
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 1, Technical Proceedings of the 2001 International Conference on Modeling and Simulation of Microsystems
Published: March 19, 2001
Pages: 258 - 261
Industry sector: Sensors, MEMS, Electronics
Topic: Micro & Bio Fluidics, Lab-on-Chip
ISBN: 0-9708275-0-4