Squeeze Film Damping of Perforated Planar Microstructures

This paper investigates the equeeze film damping of a perforated planar micromechanical structure that oscillates in the normal direction to the substrate. Special focus has been places on the effect of holes and edges of the perforated planar microstructures on the squeeze film damping of oscillatory motions. Theoretical models and test structures of the squeeze film damping have been developed for the transversely oscillating perforated plates. A set of nine different test structures, having three different sized with three different numbers of perforations, has been fabricated and tested. The experimental Q-factors, measured from the fabricated test structures, are compared with the theoretical values, estimated from finite element analysis. It is found that the finite element analysis overestimates the Q-factors up to 150% of the experimental values. Major discrepancy comes from the inaccuracy of the zero pressure condition, placed by the finite element analysis along the perforated edges

Optimum Design of a Micro-fluidic Oscillator

A micro-fluidic oscillator is used to control a linear actuator in a dynamic microsystem. The pressure difference at its two output ports causes the linear actuator to move, and it is a standard of judging the performance of the oscillator. The performance can be improved by optimizing the geometry of the oscillator, which has to enable fluid jet to switch at low inlet velocity. For this, in this study the relationship between the pressure coefficient (difference) and geometric parameters is obtained through the analysis using the software FLUENT. From the results the optimized model that maximize the output pressure difference is obtained by using a cyclic coordinate method that is one of optimization methods. As a result not only the performance is improved, but also the working range is more widen

Comparison of Various Turbulence Models for the Calculation of Turbulent Swirling Jets

Comprehensive numberical computations have been made for four turbulent swirling jets with and without recirculation to critically evaluate the accuracy and universality of several exising turbulence models as well as of the modified k-.epsilon. model proposed in the present study. A numerical scheme based on the full Navier-Stoke equations ha been developed and used for this purpose. Inlet conditions are given by experiments, whenever possible, to minimize the error due to incorrect initial conditions. The standard k-.epsilon. model performs well for the strongly swirling jets with recirculation while it underpredicts the influence of swirl for weakly swirling jets. Rodis swirl correction and algebraic stress model do not exhibit universality for the swirling jets. The present modified k-.epsilon. model derived from algebraic stress model accounts for anisotropy and streamline curvature effect on turbulence. This model performs consistently better than others for all cases. It may be because these flows have a strong dependence of stresses on the local strain of the mean flow. The predictions of truculence intensities indicate that this model successfully reflect the curvature effect in swirling jets, i.e. the stabilizing and destabilizing effects of swirl on turbulence transport

Potational Viscous Damping of On-substrate Micromirrors

In this paper, we present theoretical and experimental study on the viscous damping of the on-substrate torsional micromirrors, oscillating near the silicon substrates. In this theoretical study, we develop theoretical models and test structures for the viscous damping of the on-substrate torsional micromirrors. From a finite element analysis, we estimate the theoretical damping coefficients of the torsional micromirrors. From a finite element analysis, we estimate the theoretical damping coefficients of the torsional micromirrors, fabricated by the surface-micromaching process. From the electrostatic test of the fabricated devices, frequency-dependent rotationalvelocity of the micromirrors has been measured at the atmospheric pressure using devices, frequency-dependent rotational velocity of the micromirrors has been measured at the atmospheric pressure using the Mach-Zehnder interferometer system. Experimental damping coefficients have been extracted from the least square fit of the measured rotational velocity within the filter bandwidth of 150 kHz. We have compared the theoretical values and the experimental results on the dynamic performance of the micromirrors. The theoretical analysis overstimates the resonant frequency in the amount of 15%, while underestimating the viscous damping in the factors of 10%