Experimental and Numerical Investigation into the Flow Characteristics of Channels Etched in <100> Silicon

This paper describes the experimental and numerical techniques utilized to determine the flow characteristics of a series of trapezoidal channels. The channels, with hydraulic diameters ranging from 50 to 120 µm, are fabricated in silicon using micro fabrication technology. During this investigation the flow results, using distilled water as the test fluid, were kept well within the laminar flow regime, with the experimental results not exceeding a Reynolds number of 600. In order to compare the experimental results to the theoretical response, a numerical technique is employed to determine the predicted flow. This essentially involves solving the unknown coefficients of the Dirichlet equation using a numerical method called the Householder Transformation. The numerical results, provide a comparison to the experimental results and allows us to determine whether flow in channels of these dimensions, fabricated in silicon, produce results comparable to the predicted theoretical response.