AC Electrothermal Fluid Transport for Biofluid Applications

Date
2015-07-09
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Abstract
Most AC electrokinetic techniques used for fluid manipulations have issues when high electrical conductivity fluids (such as biofluids) are used as the working fluid. AC electrothermal (ACET) is a highly efficient technique used for biofluid micropumping. In this thesis, a novel multiple array ACET device useful for micropumping and micromixing techniques is designed, numerically studied, and experimentally investigated. Based on the new design, micropumps with different combinations of governing parameters with respect to thermal, fluidic, and electrical properties are studied and discussed. Parameters including number of electrode arrays, actuation patterns, and the thermal characteristics of the channel wall material were found to greatly influence the micropump performance. Other parameters, such as ambient temperature, actuation frequency, and channel wall thickness had the least effect. The new design can be used in a wide range of pumping and mixing applications such as drug delivery and lab-on-a-chip devices.
Description
Keywords
Engineering--Biomedical, Engineering--Electronics and Electrical, Engineering--Mechanical
Citation
Salari, A. (2015). AC Electrothermal Fluid Transport for Biofluid Applications (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/24655