Development of an Electrostatically Actuated Flow Rate Controller: Modeling and Characterization

Abstract

This paper investigates the fluid–solid interaction in an electrostatic microvalve to control the flow rate. A double clamped microbeam which has been considered as a microvalve by imposing a DC voltage on it in a capacitive system, is deflected and hence changes the boundary conditions of the fluid domain. So, in each step of increasing the voltage, the Navier–Stokes and Euler–Bernoulli equations have been solved simultaneously. To overcome the difficulties of the finite element solution in moving boundaries of the fluid domain, after each step, a mapping approach has been accomplished. Silicon and dielectric elastomer (DE) have been adopted as the microbeam’s material and capability of them to control the flow rate has been compared. The results have shown that DE can be an attractive candidate for microvalve instead of silicon due to the decreasing required applied voltage for achievement for a certain flow rate. The presented results can be also useful for modeling the FSI problems with moving boundaries in the fluid domain, especially in the microvalve design applications.