Vortex-based aggregation of micron particles in liquid using low-frequency vibration of a piezoelectric actuator

In this letter, we proposed a control method for microparticles aggregation by utilizing liquid vortices. The piezoelectric cantilever beam, equipped with a probe, caused fluid flow through low-frequency vibration and formed vortexes at the end of the probe to gather microparticles. The particle image velocimetry tests and the flow field simulation results revealed that the forming region of the liquid vortexes was consistent with the microparticle aggregation region. The control method proposed here has the merits of simple structures, no damage to the controlled objects and large control ranges.