Toward Lab-in-a-drop: Contactless droplet manipulation by acoustic field

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20H02070
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 19010:Fluid engineering-related
• Research Institution: Kogakuin University
• Principal Investigator: Hasegawa Koji 工学院大学, 工学部, 准教授 (90647918)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 非接触流体マニピュレーション / 音場浮遊法 / 液滴 / Lab-in-a-drop / 概念実証 / 混合 / 蒸発 / 非線形ダイナミクス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study aimed to demonstrate the concept of contactless fluid manipulation using acoustic fields towards realizing Lab-in-a-drop. The objectives included: (i) verifying stable conditions for levitated droplets, (ii) integrating the levitation-to-evaporation process using the same droplets, (iii) demonstrating and integrating the levitation-to-evaporation process with different droplets, and (iv) conducting numerical analysis of contactless fluid manipulation in acoustic levitation. All these tasks were completed as initially planned. By employing comprehensive approaches including systematic experiments, numerical simulations, and theoretical modeling, our results successfully demonstrated the concept of contactless fluid manipulation using acoustic fields.

Free Research Field

熱流体工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

非接触流体マニピュレーションの実現には、音響場中の液滴の浮遊、輸送、合体、混合、蒸発などの動的現象を制御する技術開発と現象理解が課題となっていた。本研究では、音響場中に浮遊する同種・異種液滴の一連の非接触操作を可能にし、Lab in a dropの実現のための概念実証に成功した点に学術的意義がある。また、社会実装に必要な統合的物理解明と、得られた知見を基に技術開発・実装に取り組んだ点に社会的意義がある。