Micro-PIV Measurements in Micro-Tubes and Proboscis of Mosquito

Abstract

Effects of the relative size of a particle to the diameter of a micro-tube on velocity profiles obtained by the micro-PIV measurement of the flow through the micro-tube were investigated to achieve the accuracy of measurements of the flow in a proboscis of a mosquito. The velocity profiles obtained for different diameter-ratios of a fluorescent particle and fused silica micro-tube were compared with the exact solution of the velocity profile of flow through a circular pipe at a low Reynolds number. A suitable diameter-ratio was found to be less than 0.04. The velocity profile of flow through the proboscis of a mosquito measured by using the suitable micro-PIV method satisfying the above condition was found to be different from the exact solution of the circular-pipe flow near the center of the proboscis. The velocity profile in the proboscis was similar to that of a rectangular cross section which was verified by a SEM observation.