DESIGN OPTIMIZATION OF A

MICRO VORTEX DIODE

Kamran Fouladi, Ph.D., P.E.
Justin Czupryna
Widener University

1
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Outline

• Introduction & Background

• Goal and Objectives
• CFD Analyses - Geometrical Effects
• Design Optimization
• Concluding Remarks

2
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Introduction & Background
• Microfluidic devices have shown great potential for biomedical applications
Drug delivery, biological detection, cellular analyses, tissue engineering
• Microvalves can play an essential role in fluid transport and control phenomena
• Microvalves with moving mechanical parts (MVMPs) can pose major manufacturing
difficulties
Deterioration of moving parts exposed to prolonged and repeated movements
Micro particles in fluid (biological and medical applications) can render microvalves dysfunctional
Damage the valve seats if they are hard
Adhering to the seat if they are soft

3
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Introduction & Background
• Repair or replacement of MVMPs can be either cost prohibitive or unsafe for some
applications
• An alternative to MVMPs are microdiodes
– Offer high resistance to flow in one direction and much smaller resistance in opposite
direction

An example of a microdiode device is a micro vortex diode

4
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Introduction & Background

Vortex Diode
Disc-shaped chamber with an axial port and a
• Relatively small pressure drop for flow tangential port
in forward direction
• Flow in reverse creates a rotating and
swirling flow in the diode chamber
• The swirling flow results in significantly
more pressure drop

5
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Introduction & Background
• A significant amount of research has been conducted on vortex diodes
• Majority of these works have been performed at macroscale
• These studies have resulted in good understanding of flow behavior at the
macroscale
Efficiency of macro vortex diodes depend largely on competition between inertial and viscous
effects
The extent of laminar or turbulent nature of flow has a significant influence on pressure drop in
macro vortex diodes.

Reynolds number has a strong influence on macro vortex diodes efficiency

6
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Introduction & Background
• Microscale vortex diodes have shown to perform poorly compared to macroscale diodes
– smaller dimensions of the micro vortex diodes result in flow remaining laminar
– laminarization does allow to take advantage of significant inertial losses similar to macroscale

7
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Goal & Objectives
Goal: Computationally-based optimization of a micro vortex diode (MVD)

Objectives:
• Investigate effects of various geometrical parameters on MVD performance (diode diameter,
tangential port height, diode depth)

• Optimize a reference design using Design of Experiment and Response Surface Method

8
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Geometry
tangential port height

 *

* diode diameter
diode depth

(Anduze et al. 2001)

9
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Figures of Merit

•• Diodicity:
 
= Reverse pressure drop
= Forward pressure drop
Same flow rate
• Diode efficiency:
= Volume flow rate in the forward direction
= Volume flow rate in the reverse direction

Same pressure drop

10
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
Analysis Setup
ANSYS Fluid®
Transient solver to achieve convergence
Pressure-based flow solver - SIMPLE scheme
Difficulties due to precession of vortex core
Second-order spatial discretization for pressure
Second-order upwind scheme for momentum equations

Obtain Q for
Validation
280,000 elements
10 inflation layers

11
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
Validation

  Boundary conditions for validation cases

(set to obtain )

12 (Experimental data courtesy of Anduze et al. 2001)

nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Geometrical Effects

 Boundary conditions for geometrical effects cases (set to

obtain inlet pressure)

  Non-dimensionalized using reference geometry values

(, , )
13
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Geometrical Effects
• Increase in Depth allow more room in the chamber for
flow to swirl around resulting in additional pressure
losses in the reverse direction
• Increase T. P. Height means larger area (constant flow
rate) resulting in lower velocity and higher pressure
– Higher pressure for both forward and reverse directions but
more in reverse

• Increase in Diameter results in lower pressure losses in

the reverse direction, which may be due to lower
viscous losses

14
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Optimization
ANSYS Design Xplorer®

 Design function:

Diode efficiency (

Design variables:
Diode diameter
Diode depth
Tangential port height

CFD run matrix based on Design of Experiment

(Central Composite Design)

15
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Optimization
 Responsesurface method – 2nd order
polynomial

Min-Max principle with the screening Goodness of fit

algorithm to find maximum

Response surfaces of diode efficiency (η)

16
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Performance Comparison Reference vs. Optimal

Design Reference Optimal

Diameter (a), 500 720
Depth (d), 80
80 140
140
T.P. height (w), 200
200 320
320
6.58E-08 2.02E-07
6.58E-08
4.64E-08 2.02E-07
1.02E-07
Efficiency () 4.64E-08
0.295 1.02E-07
0.495
0.295 0.495

Optimal design results in 69% improvement in efficiency

17
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Concluding Remarks
• A two-step approach for optimization of a micro vortex diode (MVD)
– Effects of geometrical parameters on MVD performance were investigated
– Optimized performance of MVD through geometrical variation

• Analyses showed diode diameters, diode depth, and tangential port height have significant
effects on diodicity
– Increase in diode depth and tangential port height resulted in higher diode diodicity while larger diode
diameters resulted in smaller diodicity

• Optimization study produced an optimal design with 69% improvement in efficiency

compared to reference design
Acknowledgment
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center

18
ANSYS, Inc.
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH
 Thank You!

[email protected]

19
nafems.org/caase18 The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18 June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OH