Projects

 

Each group will prepare a presentation of about 20 minutes. These are presented according to the course schedule.

Each group should also prepare readable handouts, either as copies of transparencies, or as a summarizing text of 1-2 pages.

In addition to presenting your own project, each participant should also choose one other project and act as “opponent”. The duties of the “opponents” are to prepare some possible questions that can be asked during the presentation, and initiate a discussion.

A number of suggested projects will be presented here, together with suggested literature for each (typically a few journal articles). The suggested articles are meant as an entry point to the literature. Typically, each group should locate one or a few more papers that are either referenced in the suggested papers, or are referencing them (use Science Citation Index).

The expected workload should be 4-5 workdays for the project, and say two hours for preparing the “opposition”.

Each group should contact one of the teachers to discuss the project during the work.

 

1.              Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Microfluidic Systems by Soft Lithography.
Literature: Whitesides, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (Angewandte Chemie, International Edition) 1998, vol 37, 550. The presentation should describe the fabrication and how requirements set by the processes to be investigated are fulfilled.

Non-mech

 

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Opponent

Non-mech

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2.              Chaotic Mixing 1
“Passive mixing in a three-dimensional serpentine microchannel”, Liu et.al., Journal of microelectromechanical systems, vol 9, pp190-, (2000), and,
“Chaotic advection by laminar flow in a twisted pipe”, Jones, Thomas and Aref, J Fluid Mech, vol 209, pp335-357, (1989).
Connect the theory to some specific experiments on a microchannel.

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Opponent

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Opponent

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3.              Chaotic Mixing 2
Xia et.al, “Chaotic micromixers using two-layer crossing channels to exhibit fast mixing at low Reynolds numbers”, Lab on a Chip, vol 5, pp 748-755, (2005).
Liu et.al., “Passive mixing in a three-dimensional serpentine microchannel”, Journal of microelectromechanical systems, vol 9, pp190-, (2000).
Discuss the influence of the Reynolds number in mixing, and compare different methods.

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Opponent

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4.              The Herringbone mixer
A simple design of a mixer that has attracted a lot of attention. Explain the principle and discuss the function and experimental results.
Stroock, A. D., S. K. W. Dertinger, A. Ajdari, I. Mezic, H. A. Stone, and G. M. Whitesides, 2002, Science 295, 647.
Stroock, A. D., and G. J. McGraw, 2004, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 362, 971.

Non-mech

 

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Opponent

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5.              Visco-elastic effects at micro scale
Squires and Quake, ”Microfluidics: Fluid physics at the nanoliter scale”, Reviews of Modern Physics, 2005, 77, p 977-1026. Taake one example from review paper.


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Opponent

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6.              Temperature gradients as a driving force for micro fluid flow
“Patterning liquid flow on the microscopic scale”, Kataoka and Troian, Nature, 402 (6763): 794-797, dec 16 1999. + references therein. Explain the basic phenomenon and show some example.

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Opponent

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7.              Electrowetting
Quilliet and Berge, 2001, Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science 6, p34-39, and references there
Explain the phenomenon and present the experimental observations.

Mech

 

Non-mech

 

Opponent

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8.              Wetting
Eggers, J. “Existence of receding and advancing contact lines”, Physics of Fluids 17, 082106 (2005)
Detailed mathematical investigation of wetting, with strong claims. Try to explain the mechanism behind the difference in the behavior between advancing and receding contact lines.

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Opponent

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9.              Is the fluid velocity zero at the wall, i.e. is the no slip condition true?
Tretheway, D.C. and Meinhart, C.D. ”Apparent fluid slip at hydrophobic microchannel walls”, Phys Fluids, 14, 3, L9 (2002)
Cheng J.-T. and Giordano, N., J. Phys: Condens Matter, 13, R271 (2001).
Gather recent experimental evidence and try to evalutate different explanations and mechanisms.

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Opponent

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10.           Superhydrophobic surfaces
“Recent Studies on Super-Hydrophobic Films”, Nakajima et. al., Monatshefte fur Chemie, vol 132, p31-41 (2001)  
Laminar drag reduction in microchannels using ultrahydrophobic surfaces”, Ou, J. et.al., Physics of Fluids, vol 16, p4635- , (2004).
Low-friction flows of liquid at nanopatterned interfaces”, Cottin-Bizonne, C. et.al., Nature materials, vol 2, (2003)  (www.nature.com/naturematerials)
Describe the phenomenon, and some potential uses.

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Opponent

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11.           Surfactants as a chemical engine in micro fluid flows.
Gather experimental evidence on "surfactant controlled" micro fluid flows, and explain their direct affect on the flow phenomena.
Lee S.K., Kwok D.Y., Laibinis .. Journal: Physical review E, Volume 65. (precise reference to follow)

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12.           The hydrodynamics of swimming microorganisms
“The hydrodynamics of swimming microorganisms”, E. Lauga and T. R. Powers, Rep. Prog. Phys. 72, 096601, 2009.
Explain basic principles of locomotion at low (zero) Reynolds number.

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Opponent

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13.           Lattice Boltzmann methods for micro fluids
(…)

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Opponent

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14.           Inertial microfluidics
” Differential inertial focusing of particles in curved low-aspect-ratio microchannels”, Russom et al.,  NewJournal of Physics 11(2009) 075025. Manipulation of particles for continuous ordering and separation of suspensions

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