A MEMS valve for the MIT Microengine

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2001.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Yang, Xue'en, 1975-
Other Authors: Martin A. Schmidt.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2005
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8548
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author Yang, Xue'en, 1975-
author2 Martin A. Schmidt.
author_facet Martin A. Schmidt.
Yang, Xue'en, 1975-
author_sort Yang, Xue'en, 1975-
collection MIT
description Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2001.
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spelling mit-1721.1/85482019-04-12T13:59:59Z A MEMS valve for the MIT Microengine Microelectromechanical systems valve for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Microengine Yang, Xue'en, 1975- Martin A. Schmidt. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. Mechanical Engineering. Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2001. Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-96). A microfabricated, electro-statically actuated, on/off gas valve made of silicon material has been designed, fabricated and tested. The valve will be a fuel control component in a micro-scale gas turbine engine. Room-temperature testing results using nitrogen have demonstrated repeatable valve functions and choked flow characteristics. MIT has initiated a project to build a micro-scale gas turbine generator for high power density output in applications such as portable power source or micro air vehicles. For closed-loop operation, a valve is required to be able to withstand 10 atm upstream pressure under high-temperature operating environment (700K), and result in a maximum flow rate of 600 sccm while has very low gas leakage rate. These system requirements can not be met by previously reported MEMS valve, many of which are designed for low temperature or low pressure applications. The microengine prototype valve comprises of three fusion-bonded SOI wafers. Electrostatic- actuation is used to lift the silicon boss actuator supported on four L-shaped tethers and open against high pressure. Polysilicon is chosen as the seat material for high-temperature operating environment. The flow path of the valve is designed to be choked and because of the micro-scale nature, both viscous and compressible effects are taken into consideration in flow analysis with axis-symmetric geometric. It is demonstrated that at operating pressure of 10 atmosphere, the valve can be opened at less than 150 V with power consumption that is less than 0.04 mW. The gas leakage at the same pressure is estimated to be less than 0.03 sccm Helium, while the open flow rate is 43 sccm (3 g/hr) nitrogen. Commercial fluid analysis package CFD FLUET is used to model the flow and very good agreement with experimental data is obtained. In the future, an array of 20 on/off valves (to obtain 5% accuracy in flow rate) will be used to accomplish the fuel control scheme of the microengine. by Xue'en Yang. S.M. 2005-08-23T21:10:12Z 2005-08-23T21:10:12Z 2001 2001 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8548 49014830 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 133 p. 8582707 bytes 8582464 bytes application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Mechanical Engineering.
Yang, Xue'en, 1975-
A MEMS valve for the MIT Microengine
title A MEMS valve for the MIT Microengine
title_full A MEMS valve for the MIT Microengine
title_fullStr A MEMS valve for the MIT Microengine
title_full_unstemmed A MEMS valve for the MIT Microengine
title_short A MEMS valve for the MIT Microengine
title_sort mems valve for the mit microengine
topic Mechanical Engineering.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8548
work_keys_str_mv AT yangxueen1975 amemsvalveforthemitmicroengine
AT yangxueen1975 microelectromechanicalsystemsvalveforthemassachusettsinstituteoftechnologymicroengine
AT yangxueen1975 memsvalveforthemitmicroengine