LAUSR

Abstract Calorimetric flow sensors are now widely applied in many industrial fields. Unfortunately, measurement accuracy is seriously affected when contaminants are deposited on the sensor chip. In this paper, the researchers propose simulation and experimental methods to evaluate the influences of contamination on the measurement accuracy of the calorimetric flow sensor. A natural contamination deposition experiment is proposed to present the contamination distribution on the sensor chip and quantitatively analyze the change in measurement values with the advance of contamination. Regarding contamination as a single shape, the 3D finite element model was built to study the influences of geometrical parameters of contamination, and to conclude the key influencing factor. In order to verify the experiment and simulation results, the micro-jetting experiment used wax droplets as contamination to further demonstrate the measurement variations of the sensor. The reason for the measurement deviations is explored through results obtained from these simulations and experiments.