Elastic turbulence improve thermal management of microfluidic devices

Microchannels are structures with micrometer dimensions that due to its reduced sizing presents a laminar flow, without turbulence, limiting heat transfer and mixing rate. Reports on experimental and numerical analysis of elastic turbulence generation on polymeric solutions at low flow speed on microscale devices have already been published. However, the mechanism of heat transfer enhancement by the convection effect of elastic turbulence in microscale devices and its potential application in life sciences has still not been fully elucidated. The master thesis project will mainly focus on investigating new numerical models. From simulations, the necessary experimental validation using a library chip that contains microchannels with different dimensions that are suitable to investigate elastic turbulence in microscale fluid flows. The main motivation of this study is to improve temperature and fluid mixing on miniaturized fluidic chip devices that will help to speed heat transfer and chemical reactions towards the development of a new generation of biosensors with enhanced performance.

Type of Project: Internship 

Master's degree: Master of Engineering Science; Master of Science 

Master program: Computer Science; Mechanical Engineering; Physics 

For more information or application, please contact Guiquan Wang (guiquan.wang@imec.be) and Rodrigo Sergio Wiederkehr (rodrigo.sergio.wiederkehr@imec.be)