Project Description
Thermal bubble-based micro-pumps are an upcoming microfluidic pump technology that are scalable, fully integrated, and have no moving parts. These pumps consist of a thin film resistor which superheats liquid to near its critical temperature (330 °C in the case of water) in less than 10 µs which causes local boiling and generation of a single vapor bubble. The vapor bubble rapidly expands and collapses performing mechanical work on the fluid and thus acting as an integrated micro-pump when paced in a channel.
In this project, thermal bubble-based micro-pumps will be used as a micro-mixer where the vapor bubble causes mixing to occur. A student will collect experimental data / images of laminar flow mixing using particles and or dye tracking. Various design iterations will be explored such as channel height, channel width, resistor size, and resistor placement to study mixing performance of the micro-pumps. High speed stroboscopic imaging will be used to capture detailed bubble dynamics at 1,000,000 fps. Fabrication of devices will be performed using a combination of laser cutting and 3D printing.
Matter Assembly Computation Lab
Special Requirements
The ideal candidate would have a strong background in fluid flows, CAD modeling (SolidWorks or Fusion 360), and a coding language (MATLAB or Python); have previous hands-on project experience (beyond 1st year projects); GPA > 3.2; have strong and effective communication and technical writing skills; and have laser cutting experience.
Contact
- Robert MacCurdy (faculty)
- Brandon Hayes (graduate student)