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Total internal reflection velocimetry (TIRV) is used to measure particle motion in the near-wall region of a microfluidic system. TIRV images are illuminated with the evanescent field of an incident laser pulse and contain only particles that are very close to the channel surface. Sub-micron-sized fluorescent particles suspended in water are used as seed particles and their images are analyzed with a particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) algorithm to extract information about apparent slip velocity. At relatively low shear rates (less than 2,500 s -1), a velocity proportional to the shear rate was observed. The statistical difference between velocities measured over hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces was found to be minimal. The results suggest that the slip length, if present, is less than 10 nm, but uncertainty regarding the exact character of the illumination field prevents a more accurate measurement at this time. Numerical simulations are presented to help understand the results and to provide insight into the mechanisms that result in the experimentally observed distributions. Issues associated with the accuracy of the experimental technique and the interpretations of the experimental results are also discussed. more...

An experimental system for liquid flow-rate measurements of pressure-driven flow through microchannels is described. The displacement of a meniscus is tracked in a precision borehole using a laser distance meter mounted on a feed-back controlled traversing stage. Successful measurements of flow rates as small as 30 pl/s are reported when using non-evaporative hexadecane, and evaporative fluids such as ethanol are measured at flow rates of 0.1 nl/s. The set-up can also be used for measurements in time-dependent flows. Finally, a discussion of the influence of dissolved nitrogen on the measured flow rates is given. more...

The calibration of high-bandwidth sensors is typically carried out in an steady environment or at least a well-controlled unsteady flow. A simple technique for calibration of sensors in flow fields with arbitrary unsteadiness (such as a turbulent field) is described. Although the method requires a DC reference measurement at each calibration point, the resulting calibration is accurate for both average and unsteady measurements up to the full bandwidth of the sensor. Applications and limitations of the technique are also discussed. more...

Abstract:  We present a measurement technique designed to accurately measure small flow rates near atmospheric pressure, and demonstrate the ability to measure flows on the order of 10-10 mol/sec. The technique is based upon a modification of a constant-volume mass accumulation scheme where the flow rate is measured by monitoring the change in pressure of a known volume of gas. We identify two phenomena, thermally-induced fluctuations and thermodynamically-induced fluctuations, which will affect the resolution and dynamic range of the instrumentation and discuss how the problems associated with them can be mitigated. We estimate the resolution to be approximately 2.010-13 mol/s, and the maximum measurable flow rate to be to the order 210-9 mol/s. more...