The effect of different parameter on the flow response of microfluidic-based acoustic sensor

This work studied the flow behaviour of microfluidic-based acoustic sensor at a region where the flow of fluid was considered to be significant in determining the overall flow behaviour of the system flow in microchannel. The study was carried out based on finite element model (FEM) using ANSYS multiphysics package. Two structural parameters, reservoir or chamber height and the number of microchannel were used as the varying parameter. The flow behaviour was then analysed based on pressure distribution, velocity contour and velocity vector for a single and dual microchannel configuration with different reservoir height. The height was varied in the range of 20 to 100 μm due to limitation in the thickness of mold material during fabrication. Simulation results reveal that the flow response was not critically affected by the chamber height, whereas the dual microchannel configuration had an approximately a factor of 2.8 higher in terms of its flow velocity compared to the single microchannel configuration. This effect was referred as an amplification factor of the flow response due to this structure variation.