Direct comparison between five different microchannels, part 2: Experimental description and flow friction measurement

Part one of this paper [1] investigates the manufacture of five types of microchannels produced by wet and dry etching in silicon and precision mechanical sawing in silicon and thermoset plastic. This paper describes the experimental equipment and methods used to measure the pressure flow characteristics of the manufactured channels. A test system has been built to test each sample using the same inlet and outlet manifolds, pressure tappings, pumping system, and instrumentation. The measured pressure flow behavior was compared with theoretical values calculated from macroscale theory. Error analysis was carried out in order to determine the overall accuracy of the experimental work and determine the significance of any experimental deviation from theoretical values. An area compensation term is introduced to account for the difference in cross-section between the measured actual channels and the rectangles/trapeziums that share their overall dimensions.