Efficient numerical predictions of MEMS fluid-structure interaction damping

The new software LINFLOW is used to look into the fluid-structure (aeroelastic) interaction for MEMS-scaled dimensions. Both fluids in narrow regions and structures surrounded by fluids are addressed. The results are compared with experiments and publications. It is shown that the chosen approach can, without loss of accuracy, reduce the CPU time with more than a factor 100 over conventional simulation programs such as FLOTRAN. That both inertial and viscous effects, as well as some non-linear effects, are accounted for 3-dimensionally results in more reliable results than those obtained via analytic approximations.