DINAMICS Project RECI/EMS-SIS/0147/2012

The Laboratory of Microscale Interfacial Transport Phenomena provides an infrastructure to study the underlying physics of microfluidics and micro-scale transport processes at interfaces.

 

This space opened recently and provides a new area of research at IN+ in Instituto Superior Técnico supported by a multidisciplinary team, which has been continuously growing its expertise in a variety of subjects, mostly related to bioengineering, chemical engineering and micro-fabrication.
 

Furthermore, the laboratory is prepared with demo facilities to teach basic concepts in pool and flow boiling and to show practical in situ applications for cooling and refrigeration systems to support the teaching of subjects in fluid mechanics (microfluidics and biomicrofluidics), heat transfer and thermodynamics of macro and microelectromechanical systems.

 

EQUIPMENT

The available equipment includes microscopic techniques of laser diffraction for the characterization of a variety of microfluidic and interfacial transport phenomena, such as:

 

• Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope

• Modular optical goniometer

• High-resolution inverted microscope

• High-speed micro PIV/LIF 2D

• Photron HighSpeedStar high-speed camera

• High-speed thermal camera Onca-mw ir-insb-320

• Phase Doppler Anemometer

• High-speed camera

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RESEARCH & TRAINING

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The Laboratory activities follow an interdisciplinary approach, combining the expertise of various scientific fields. The research and training activities are based on an experimental methodology, being organized in four main research areas, which are closely related:

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• surface physics and chemistry

• microfluidics and bio(micro)fluidics

• heat transfer in flows with phase change

• thermodynamics of micro-electro-mechanical systems

 

Each of these research areas has a high potential to provide innovative applications and allow the transfer of new technology to the industry, within the context of new micro-scale systems.

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