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The Coriolis mass flow sensor. The tube is the U-shaped tiny line. In the left lower corner, the electric fingers are visible for measuring the displacement of the tube and activating movement

Abstract:
One milligram per hour: fluid flow can be measured with great precision using a tiny ‘wobbling' tube with a diameter of only 40 micrometres. Thanks to a new technique, the sensor, which makes use of the ‘Coriolis effect', can be made even more compact, e.g. for medical applications. Scientists at the University of Twente's MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology have published an article on the subject in Applied Physics Letters.

Measuring flow using a tiny wobbling tube

Enschede, Netherlands | Posted on December 18th, 2012

Coriolis meters are often enormous instruments mounted in a pipeline to measure liquid flow accurately. Reduced to micrometre dimensions the result is a sensor that can measure extremely slow-moving small quantities of fluids. The fluid is passed through a tiny rectangular tube that is made to wobble. The Coriolis effect then causes the tube to move upwards as well, and this upward displacement is a measure of the amount of fluid flowing through it.

No magnets

Until now magnets have been used to bring about the wobbling motion. One of the problems was that the magnets are far bigger than the actual sensor. In the Applied Physics Letters article researcher Harmen Droogendijk introduces a new method, known as ‘parametric excitation'. Dozens of ‘electric fingers' attached to the tube fit between identical opposing fingers mounted on supports running
parallel to the tube. The extent to which these opposing sets of fingers slide between one another can be used to measure the tube's lateral displacement. But we could also use them to set the tube in
motion, thought Droogendijk. He found that there is a limited area of electrical tension where the tube moves up and down much more than at a lower or higher tension, though this has to be tuned very precisely. Droogendijk carried out mathematical modelling, resulting in a new design that no longer needs magnets. More research is needed to find out whether the current lower limit of approximately 1 milligram per hour can be lowered even further.

The research was carried out in the Transducers Science and Technology group led by Prof. Gijs Krijnen, which is part of the University of Twente's MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology. It received financial support from the Dutch national nanotechnology program NanoNed. More research is needed to find
out whether the current lower limit of approximately 1 milligram per hour can be lowered even further.

Industrial applications

The Coriolis mass flow sensor is being further developed by Bronkhorst High-Tech in Ruurlo to produce a precision instrument for such things as monitoring medical IV pumps, analysing medicines using liquid
chromatography, and use in microreactors and the manufacture of solar cells.

Full bibliographic information

The article, ´Parametric excitation of a micro Coriolis mass flow sensor´, by Harmen Droogendijk, Jarno Groenesteijn, Jeroen Haneveld (Micronit Microfluidics), Remco Sanders, Remco Wiegerink, Theo Lammerink, Joost Lötters (Bronkhorst High-Tech) and Gijs Krijnen, has been published in Applied Physics Letters. It is available on request.

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