Publication:

MATLAB simulation for different number of pillars of a microfluidic rotational motor driven by circular vibrations

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to create a MATLAB code able to simulate the velocity distribution of the liquid of a microfluidic rotational motor for a changeable number of pillars and parameters, so the results of different configurations of the motor can be theoretically shown. The main idea of this microfluidic rotational motor is inducing a circular vibration to a glass plate with two perpendicular piezoelectric devices, so a circular flux is created in the liquid around the pillar that is glued perpendicular to the plate. This rotational movement is used to drive a rotor floating in the liquid. This motor has already been experimentally tested, but a possible improvement is searched by the change of the individual pillar for a “pot”. It is especially interesting to observe the velocity distribution of the fluid when there are enough pillars creating a circle, so they overlap and create a pot shape configuration. This is interesting because the pot shape reduces the evaporation of the droplet which has been a persistent problem in the laboratory experimentation and could present improvements with respect to the pillar-motor. With this MATLAB code, it is possible to observe the velocity distribution for different changeable parameters of the motor,such as amplitude and frequency of the circular vibrations, distance between pillars and liquid chosen for the microfluidic motor. In this bachelor thesis it has been shown that the microfluidic rotational motor with a “pot” has satisfactory theoretical velocity distribution results. A MATLAB code is provided so the user can calculate by itself which will be the theorical velocity distribution for different configurations of the motor.