Computational characterization of turbulent flow in a microfluidic actuator

In this contribution, an unsteady numerical simulation of the flow in a microfluidic oscillator has been performed. The transient turbulent flow inside the device is described by the Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes equations (URANS) coupled with proper turbulence models. The main characteri...

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Autores:
Laín Beatove, Santiago
Lozano Parada, Jaime H.
Guzmán, Javier
Tipo de recurso:
Article of journal
Fecha de publicación:
2022
Institución:
Universidad Autónoma de Occidente
Repositorio:
RED: Repositorio Educativo Digital UAO
Idioma:
eng
OAI Identifier:
oai:red.uao.edu.co:10614/14697
Acceso en línea:
https://hdl.handle.net/10614/14697
https://red.uao.edu.co/
Palabra clave:
Dinámica de fluidos
Fluid dynamics
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation
2D and 3D unsteady analysis
Fluidic actuator
Turbulent flow
Rights
openAccess
License
Derechos reservados - MDPI, 2022
Description
Summary:In this contribution, an unsteady numerical simulation of the flow in a microfluidic oscillator has been performed. The transient turbulent flow inside the device is described by the Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes equations (URANS) coupled with proper turbulence models. The main characteristics of the complex fluid flow inside the device along one oscillation cycle was analyzed in detail, including not only velocity contours but also the pressure and turbulent kinetic energy fields. As a result, two-dimensional simulations provided good estimations of the operating frequency of the fluidic actuator when compared with experimental measurements in a range of Reynolds numbers. Moreover, with the objective of altering the operating frequency of the apparatus and, in order to adapt it to different applications, geometrical modifications of the feedback channels were proposed and evaluated. Finally, a fully three-dimensional simulation was carried out, which allowed for the identification of intricate coherent structures revealing the complexity of the turbulent flow dynamics inside the fluidic oscillator