Ultrasound driven bubble based microsystems offer a unique method of harnessing the interaction of fluid and acoustics at microscales. These systems feature rich and diverse physics, including nonlinear acoustics, resonance, inter-bubble interactions. bubble-particle interactions, etc. In our research, we have employed free oscillating bubbles as well as acoustic bubbles that are trapped inside horseshoe structures. In both cases, we harness the fluid-acoustic interaction by actuating the microsystem using a piezoelectric transducer. The acoustic oscillations of the bubble surface induce the acoustic streaming flow that can be utilized for a number of applications ranging from fluid mixing and particle manipulation to enhanced mass transfer of chemicals. We also combined opto-thermally generated bubbles with acoustics to subject cells and microorganisms to programmable hydrodynamic force fields that can be used to manipulate these objects, either for imaging purposes or for a mechanical characterization of the immersed objects such as red blood cells. This latter class of study aligns very well with our fluid-structure interaction computational framework for modeling immersed bodies in acoustic streaming flows..
References:
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