Rotational acoustofluidic fields induced by cross structures with asymmetric radiation surface arrangements

In this study, a novel strategy to generate sophisticated acoustic streaming vortices, which would be available for rotational manipulation of micro-/nano-scale objects, is proposed and simulated. All structural units in the microfluidic chamber are symmetric in design, and all radiation surfaces have the same settings of input frequency, oscillation amplitude, and initial phase. Different kinds of asymmetric acoustofluidic patterns can be generated in the originally static microfluidic chamber only because of the asymmetric arrangement of multiple radiation surfaces in space. The calculation results of kaleidoscopic acoustofluidic fields together with particle movement trajectories induced by cross structures with different radiation surface distributions further demonstrate the versatile particle manipulation capabilities of these functional microfluidic devices. In comparison to the existing oscillation modulation method, which requires multiple radiation surfaces with different initial phases, acoustofluidic devices with a same initial phase of all radiation surfaces can significantly reduce the required number of auxiliary signal generators and power amplifiers. The proposed generation method of acoustofluidic patterns is promising for microfluidic mixing without rotating machinery, driving operation of microrobots, and rotational manipulation of biological samples.