Modeling of Novel Microfluidic based Flow Sensor Inspired from Fish Canal Neuromast for Underwater Sensing

Modeling of the microfluidic based flow sensor that inspired from the canal neuromast in the fish lateral line system has been presented in this paper. The structure of the sensor consists of the dome-shaped membrane integrated with the microchannel which is filled with electrolyte. The analysis on the model was carried out using the computational fluid dynamic and finite element method. Based on the simulation, higher performance can be achieved by increase the outer radius and decrease the ratio of the radius of the dome-shaped membrane. The PDMS material was suggested for this sensor because of its advantages that is easily deformed and suitable to implement as membrane. We proposed using the microfluidic technology as a sensing element because of the simple structure and ease to fabricate compare to the common sensing element such as piezoresistive and strain gage.