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A NUMERICAL STUDY FOR LIQUID BRIDGE BASED MICROGRIPPING AND CONTACT ANGLE MANIPULATION BY ELECTROWETTING METHOD

Chandra, Santanu
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1197299987

Abstract Details

2007, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, Mechanical Engineering.
The last decade had witnessed some very outstanding research on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) that has vast impact on future technologies. However building a complete microsystem requires proper microassembly methods. But microassembly research is facing stiff resistance due to the presence of many dominant forces which appears due to the scaling law. Overcoming these forces has been found to be a major drawback in microgripper research. So the primary the challenge today researches face is the lack of proper manipulation schemes. Understanding the physical forces associated with micro-scale as well as devising techniques to control them is needed in order to design a proper micromanipulation scheme. The motivation of this study is to contribute to the microassembly research by studying the forces in microscale and propose a micromanipulation scheme to control these forces. A pick and place technique using a liquid bridge based microgripper is presented in this dissertation. Studies conducted on liquid bridge based single probe gripper have shown promise in picking up an object using strong capillary force and surface tension forces as the lifting forces. But a smooth release of the object has been a challenge. We have proposed a novel manipulation scheme by using electrowetting method to control the lifting forces. By changing the electrical field imposed on the gripper surface, one can change the contact angle of the liquid bridge and therefore can change the meniscus geometry. Change in curvature of the meniscus causes the lifting forces between the object and the gripper to change. The focus of this study is to explore the possibility of breaking a liquid bridge by increasing the contact angles for a smooth release of an object. A theoretical study was conducted to understand the effect of contact angle manipulation on the lifting forces. Young-Laplace equation, the non linear differential equation governing the liquid interface is numerically solved for a constant liquid volume and the specified contact angles as boundary conditions. Another set of numerical solution using commercial multi-physics software CFDACE+ has been used in parallel to validate the hypothesis. Results show that for a proper choice of liquid volume the contact angle manipulation is suitable for picking up and releasing of an object.
Celal Batur (Advisor)
233 p.
Engineering, Mechanical
MEMS; Microassembly; Microgripper; Micromanipulation Scheme; Contact Angle; electrowetting; Young-Laplace Equation

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Chandra, S. (2007). A NUMERICAL STUDY FOR LIQUID BRIDGE BASED MICROGRIPPING AND CONTACT ANGLE MANIPULATION BY ELECTROWETTING METHOD [Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1197299987

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Chandra, Santanu. A NUMERICAL STUDY FOR LIQUID BRIDGE BASED MICROGRIPPING AND CONTACT ANGLE MANIPULATION BY ELECTROWETTING METHOD. 2007. University of Akron, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1197299987.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Chandra, Santanu. "A NUMERICAL STUDY FOR LIQUID BRIDGE BASED MICROGRIPPING AND CONTACT ANGLE MANIPULATION BY ELECTROWETTING METHOD." Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1197299987

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

akron1197299987
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© 2007, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Akron and OhioLINK.