In this letter, we proposed a control method for microparticles aggregation by utilizing liquid vortices. The piezoelectric cantilever beam, equipped with a probe, caused fluid flow through low-frequency vibration and formed vortexes at the end of the probe to gather microparticles. The particle image velocimetry (PIV) tests and the flow field simulation results revealed that the forming region of the liquid vortexes was consistent with the microparticle aggregation region. The control method proposed here has the merits of simple structures, no damage to the controlled objects and large control ranges.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.