Effective mass and flow patterns of fluids surrounding microcantilevers.

An analytical approach to determine the streamlines of fluid flow adjacent to the surfaces of vibrating cantilevers is presented. Fluid flow over the top and bottom surfaces of a microcantilever is established by solving two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations for viscous flow. The x and y velocity components are used to establish streamlines for absolute fluid motion. These streamlines show a central stagnation core perpendicular and central to the cantilever surface extending along the full length of cantilevers, which most likely accounts for the added mass effect (induced mass) of fluid media around vibrating microcantilevers.