Application of Lattice Boltzmann Method to Simulate Microchannel Flows

C. Y. Lim, C. Shu,¹ X. D. Niu, and Y. T. Chew

Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 10, Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260.

Abstract

Micro flow becomes a popular field of interest due to the advent of MEMS. In this work, the Lattice Boltzmann Method, a particle-based approach, is applied to simulate the 2D isothermal pressure driven micro-channel flow. Two boundary treatment schemes are incorporated to investigate their impacts to the entire flow field. We pay particular attention to the pressure and the slip velocity distributions along the channel in our simulation. We also look at the mass flow rate which is constant throughout the channel and the overall average velocity for pressure-driven flow. In addition, we include a simulation of shear-driven flow in our results for verification. Our numerical results are well compared with those obtained analytically and experimentally. From this study, we may conclude that the lattice Boltzmann method is an efficient approach for simulation of micro flows.

¹ Corresponding Author: [email protected] (E-mail)