Research Information System
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, vol.4, no.6, pp.489-500, 2008 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
One of the propulsion mechanisms of microorganisms is based on propagation of bending deformations on an elastic tail. In principle, an elastic thin-film can be placed in a channel and actuated for pumping of the fluid by means of introducing a series of traveling-wave deformations on the film. Here, we present a simulation-based analysis of transient, two-dimensional Stokes flow induced by propagation of sinusoidal deformations on an elastic thin-film submerged in a fluid between parallel plates. Simulations are based on a numerical model that solves time-dependent Stokes equations on deforming finite-element mesh, which is due to the motion of the thin-film boundary and obtained by means of the arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian method. Effects of the wavelength, frequency, amplitude and channel's height on the time-averaged flow rate and the rate-of-work done on the fluid by the thin-film are demonstrated and grouped together as the flow-rate and power parameters to manifest a combined parametric dependence. © Springer-Verlag 2007.