J. Vincent et al., A BOUNDARY-ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF THE FLUID-FLOW AROUND MICROMOTORS, Engineering analysis with boundary elements, 21(3), 1998, pp. 277-284
This paper demonstrates the use of the boundary element method (BEM) t
o model the fluid flow field around micromachines. We have looked at a
surface-micromachined micromotor with twelve stator and eight rotor p
oles, modelling the actual three-dimensional geometry of the fins. Our
results give a better approximation to the experimentally measured dr
ag than existing finite element analyses. We have looked at the drag o
n different faces, how the drag varies with angular displacement, how
it varies with the addition of each component, and how it varies with
the rotor's elevation. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser
ved.