Numerical Study of Diodicity Mechanism in Different Tesla-Type Microvalves

Abstract

Microvalve is one of the most important components in microfluidic systems and micropumps. In this paper, threedimensionalincompressible flow through a Tesla-type microvalve is simulated using FLUENT computational fluiddynamic package. The flow is laminar and SIMPLE algorithm is used. The second-order upwind method isimplemented for discretizing convective terms. The diodicity mechanism is investigated in detail for three differentmicrovalves. Effect of several series Tesla-type microvalves on diodicity is also studied. The numerical analysesreveal that the mechanism of diodicity occurs at the T-junction and side channel. If inlet and outlet channels areeliminated, diodicity can be increased by 2. Pressure field analysis shows that the pressure drop is much severe atthe junction of the reverse flow compared to the forward flow. The obtained numerical results are compared with thoseof experimental and a good agreement between them is noticed.