A comparison of acoustic streaming predictions by COMSOL Multiphysics and OpenFoam

Abstract

The work describes the modeling and simulation of the acoustic streaming phenomenon, generated by a piezoelectric transducer, for promoting flows and mixing in microfluidic devices, overcoming the slow molecular diffusion. The study contemplates the first and second order compressible Navier-Stokes equations. The first order values describe the damped propagation of acoustic waves and the second order values describe the global flow. It was performed a comparison between two numerical simulation softwares: COMSOL Mutiphysics and OpenFoam. In both softwares, it was determined a mean global flow with visible recirculation of fluids. It was concluded that the viscosity influences the acoustic attenuation and, as consequence, the flows over the fluid domain, and both softwares were able to model it properly.