A fundamental study of the supersonic microjet

Microjet flows are often encountered in many industrial applications of micro-electro-mechanical systems as well as in medical engineering fields such as a transdermal drug delivery system for needle-free injection of drugs into the skin. The Reynolds numbers of such microjets are usually several orders of magnitude below those of larger-scale jets. The supersonic microjet physics with these low Reynolds numbers are not yet understood to date. Computational modeling and simulation can provide an effective predictive capability for the major features of the supersonic microjets. In the present study, computations using the axisymmetic, compressible, Navier-Stokes equations are applied to understand the supersonic microjet flow physics. The pressure ratio of the microjets is changed to obtain both the under-and over-expanded flows at the exit of the micronozzle. Sonic and supersonic microjets are simulated and compared with some experimental results available. Based on computational results; two microjets are discussed in terms of total pressure, jet decay and supersonic core length