Viscous microstructural dampers with aligned holes: design procedure including the edge correction

Area of Science:

• Mechanical Engineering
• Materials Science
• Acoustics

Background:

• Extends previous work on viscous damping in perforated microstructures with staggered holes.
• Addresses the need for design formulas for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide design formulas for aligned circular and square holes in perforated planar microstructures.
• To develop formulas that ensure minimum total damping coefficient for a given open area.
• To introduce and validate an edge correction for finite microstructures.

Main Methods:

• Derivation of design formulas for aligned hole configurations.
• Development of a simple edge correction factor.
• Validation of the edge correction using Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations.

Main Results:

• Formulas for calculating viscous damping in MEMS devices with aligned holes.
• An edge correction method with a validated relative error below 0.04%.
• An integrated design procedure combining formulas and edge correction.

Conclusions:

• The developed formulas and edge correction facilitate the design of viscous perforated dampers with specific properties.
• The findings are applicable to various MEMS devices, including accelerometers, microphones, and resonators.
• The study offers a practical approach for optimizing damping in microstructures.