Quantitative Visualization of Micro-Tube Flow Using Micro-PIV

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Sugii, Y. | Okamoto, K.

Affiliations: Nuclear Engineering Research Laboratory, University of Tokyo,Tokai-mura, Ibaraki, 319-1188, Japan. E-mail: [email protected] | Nuclear Engineering Research Laboratory, University of Tokyo,Tokai-mura, Ibaraki, 319-1188, Japan

Abstract: This paper describes PIV measurements of the flow field in a micro round tube with an internal diameter of 100 μm in order to examine micro-scale effects. Since the refractive index of the micro tube almost corresponds to that of water, the inner flow in the tube can be observed clearly. The micro PIV system has been developed using a microscope, a high sensitive CCD camera, a double pulsed Nd:YAG laser and optics. Applying the micro PIV technique to the flow, the velocity distributions with spatial resolution of 1.8 × 1.8 μm were measured even near the wall in the center plane of the round tube. It was found that the velocities near the tube wall were smaller than the theoretical values calculated by using Poiseuille's law. It is believed that this disparity is due to micro-scale effects such as interference between particles and the wall, friction at the wall, surface tension and so on.

Keywords: Micro PIV, Fluorescent particle, Round tube

Journal: Journal of Visualization, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 9-16, 2004