Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : September 11, 2022 - September 14, 2022
In this study, we demonstrate that thermally induced Knudsen forces in a rarefied gas can be exploited to achieve a tweezer-like mechanism to trap and grasp a micro-object without physical contact. Using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method, we showed that a heated thin plate, mounted perpendicularly on a flat substrate, can act as the tweezer-like mechanism. Specifically, it is found that the pressure differences induced by the thermal edge flows around the corners of the beam and the tip of the thin plate, generate a force that attracts the beam to the plate horizontally and vertically.
