Flow physics in MEMS

Abstract Interest in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) has experienced explosive growth during the past few years. Such small devices typically have characteristic size ranging from 1 mm down to 1 micron, and may include sensors, actuators, motors, pumps, turbines, gears, ducts and valves. Microdevices often involve mass, momentum and energy transport. Modeling gas and liquid flows through MEMS may necessitate including slip, rarefaction, compressibility, intermolecular forces and other unconventional effects. In this article, I shall provide a methodical approach to flow modeling for a broad variety of microdevices. The continuum-based Navier–Stokes equations — with either the traditional no-slip or slip-flow boundary conditions — work only for a limited range of Knudsen numbers above which alternative models must be sought. These include molecular dynamics (MD), Boltzmann equation, Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC), and other deterministic/probabilistic molecular models. The present paper will broadly survey available methodologies to model and compute transport phenomena within microdevices.

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