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For our group's final project in MENG 363L (fluid mechanics lab), our experiment analyzed the effectiveness of various Tesla valve designs in their ability to flush out particulates in the fluid when purged with a mixture of surfactant and water using the diodicity as the parameter for performance. My role on the team was to design and fabricate the microfluidic chips that we used in our experiments and do the CFD analysis. I CAD modeled the chips in SolidWorks and performed preliminary CFD simulations in Ansys to generate a hypothesis on which design would perform the best (highest diodicity). I laser cut the Tesla valves out of a thin 1/16" acrylic sheet (sandwiched between thicker 1/8" plates) and joined with sheets of 3M 300SLE double-sided tape. Inlet and outlet brass fittings were installed allowing for the microfluidic tubing to be press fit to the chips.
Ansys CFD simulations
Ansys CFD simulations
Sealing leaks in microfluidic chip with UV curing sealant
We performed the experiments using an optical microscope. The fluid was doped with particles that only reflect light at a specific wavelength, allowing us to better observe the fluid flow through the microfluidic chips. Videos were recorded of both the forward and reverse flows and were analyzed in MATLAB using an image particle tracking algorithm to measure the average velocity of the particles. The diodicity of each Tesla valve design was then calculated and compared to conclude which design performs the best (highest diodicity). The video on the right shows a sped-up timelapse of the recorded footage.
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