A Rapid Prototyped Thermal Mass Flowmeter
An innovative rapid prototyping technique for embedding microcomponents in PDMS replicas was developed and applied on a thermal mass flowmeter for closed loop micropump flowrate control. Crucial flowmeter design and thermal parameters were investigated with a 3-D fully coupled electro-thermal-fluidi...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2021-08-01
|
| Series: | Sensors |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/16/5373 |
| Summary: | An innovative rapid prototyping technique for embedding microcomponents in PDMS replicas was developed and applied on a thermal mass flowmeter for closed loop micropump flowrate control. Crucial flowmeter design and thermal parameters were investigated with a 3-D fully coupled electro-thermal-fluidic model which was built in Comsol Multiphysics 5.2. The flowmeter was characterized for three distinct measuring configurations. For precise low flowrate applications, a sensor-heater-sensor flowmeter configuration with a constant heater temperature was found to be the most appropriate yielding the measuring range of 0 to 90 µL·min<sup>−1</sup> and the sensitivity of 1.3 °C·µL<sup>−1</sup>·min in the lower flowrate range of 0 to 40 µL·min<sup>−1</sup>. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1424-8220 |