Visualization of gas flow in micro-channel

Abstract

This paper describes PIV measurements of gas flow in micro channel such as fuel cell. A new visualization technique has been developed using fluorescent oil mist generator, microscope, high sensitive CCD camera, double pulsed Nd:YAG laser and so on. Applying the visualization system to the flow in the strait micro channel with 500 μm width and 300 μm depth, the velocity distributions even close to the channel wall were measured using PTV technique. The technique is useful to investigate a gas flow in micro scale.