Investigation of Fractal Growth on the Curved Surfaces in Hele Shaw Flow (CRG/2021/000747)

Microstructure and its fabrication are emerging topics in the MEMS. Various researcher invented new techniques to fabricate microstructures. Researchers develop, fabricate and controls 2-dimensional microfractals using Hele-Shaw cell. But the fabrication of the 3-dimensional microfractals is not explored yet. Hele-Shaw cell consists of two plates closed place one over another with a minute gap between them. This project deals with the fabrication of 3-dimensional microfractals. This fabrication is achieved by using a curved plate in the Hele-Shaw cell. The conical and spherical shape curved surfaces are employed in this study. This project has several stages starting from the fabrication of the experimental setup, preparation of the resin, characterization of the experiments, fabrication and control of the microfractals, and finally fabrication through the replica molding. Initially, customised non-Newtonian fluid is stretched in the pair of the male-female curved plate and one plate is moved away from another plate. Air is entered through the gap between plates and microfractals are formed on both plates. In the proposed setup, the motorised linear stage will be used to give linear motion to any one of the plates of the cell. To monitor and control the entire process in real-time, the system will be built, data acquisition system and controller. The proposed setup can be used to biomimicking the things present in nature like leaf venation. A synthetic leaf can be developed through this process. Artificial photosynthesis can be achieved through the synthetic leaf and some electronics components (IC’s). The fabricated microfractals can be used in a micro heat exchanger to dissipate the heat from the small electronic device. The concept of fabrication of the 3- dimensional microfractals is expected to open a new avenue in several other applications in MEMS. Apart from this, it also has application in the biomedical. Blood veins can be mimic through this method and can be used to study the various reaction happening at the microlevel.

Principal Investigator/Co.- PI: Dr. Kiran Suresh Bhole and Dr. Nilesh Raykar

Sanctioned Amount (Rs.): 31,80,921/-

Year: 2021

Sponsoring Agency/Institution: Science and Engineering Research Board

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