Microfluidics and Nanofluidics

, Volume 13, Issue 3, pp 411–420 | Cite as

Numerical simulation of AC electrothermal micropump using a fully coupled model

Research Paper
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

The classic model by Ramos et al. for numerical simulation of alternating current electrothermal (ACET) flow is a decoupled model based on an electrothermal force derived using a linear perturbation method, which is not appropriate for the applications, where Joule heating is large and the effect of temperature rise on material properties cannot be neglected. An electrically–thermally–hydrodynamically coupled (fully coupled) ACET flow model considering variable electrical and thermophysical properties of the fluids with temperature was developed. The model solves AC electrical equations and is based on a more general electrostatic force expression. Comparisons with the classic decoupled model were conducted through the numerical simulations of an ACET micropump with asymmetric electrode pairs. It was found that when temperature rise is small the fully coupled model has the same results with the classic model, and the difference between the two models becomes larger and larger with the increasing temperature. The classic decoupled model underestimates the maximum temperature rise and pumping velocity, since it cannot consider the increase in electrical conductivity and the decrease in viscosity with temperature. The critical frequencies where the lowest velocity occurs or pumping direction reverses are shifted to higher frequencies with the increasing voltage according to the fully coupled model, while are kept unchanged according to the classic model.

Keywords

Fully coupled Numerical model Electrothermal Joule heating Micropump 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

Financial Support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China through Grant No. 50706026 and Grant No.51036005 is gratefully acknowledged.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Power Machinery and Engineering, School of Mechanical EngineeringShanghai Jiao Tong UniversityShanghaiChina

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