Repetitive acoustic streaming patterns in sinusoidal shaped microchannels

Abstract

Geometry of the fluid container plays a key role in the shape of acoustic streaming patterns. Inadvertent vortices can be troublesome in some cases, but if treated properly, the problem turns into a very useful parameter in acoustic tweezing or micromixing applications. In this paper, the effects of sinusoidal boundaries of a microchannel on acoustic streaming patterns are studied. The results show that while top and bottom sinusoidal walls are vertically actuated at the resonance frequency of basic hypothetical rectangular microchannel, some repetitive acoustic streaming patterns are recognised in classifiable cases. Such patterns can never be produced in the rectangular geometry with flat boundaries. Relations between geometrical parameters and emerging acoustic streaming patterns lead us to propose formulas in order to predict more cases. Such results and formulations were not trivial at a glance.