Measuring viscosity with nonlinear self-excited microcantilevers

Abstract

A viscosity sensor based on the nonlinear behaviour of a microcantilever embedded in a self-excitation loop with an adjustable phase-shifter is proposed. The self-sustained oscillation frequencies of the cantilever are experimentally and theoretically investigated as functions of the fluid viscosity and of the imposed phase shift of the signal along the self-excitation loop. The sensor performance is validated experimentally using different water-glycerol solutions. In contrast to existing rheological sensors, the proposed platform can be tuned to work in two different modes: a high-sensitivity device whose oscillation frequency changes smoothly with the rheological properties of the fluid or a critical viscosity threshold detector, where, for small changes in fluid viscosity, there is a step change in oscillation frequency.