Vol.:(0123456789) Sensing and Imaging (2019) 20:38 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11220-019-0260-0 1 3 ORIGINAL PAPER Facilitating Displacement of a Micro‑scale Liquid Marble Using Electric Fields Mina Ghanbari 1  · Ghader Rezazadeh 2 Received: 26 April 2019 / Revised: 10 September 2019 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract This paper discusses a novel theoretical treatment for facilitating displacement of a micro-scale liquid marble. It can be benefcial in designing microsensors as liquid- state micro accelerometers. In this work, the marble has been placed on the substrate under which the fnger electrodes are located. The marble has been bounded with another rigid plate above it. To overcome the complexities of the marble displace- ment, initially, it has been deformed utilizing the electric feld. This deforming elec- tric feld is generated via applying a sufcient DC voltage to the top, and bottom fxed plates. The electrostatic manipulating force exerting on the marble opposes the marble’s gravity, reduces its contact zone area and eventually causes the mar- ble to get spherical form approximately. For displacing the marble, another elec- tric and considerably weaker feld than deforming one is applied to the marble via fnger electrodes. The displacing electric feld, which causes the marble to roll, is created via applying a DC voltage to the fnger electrodes underneath the substrate. The displacing potentials are set to be on and of regularly to accelerate the move- ment of the marble. It has been shown that for a liquid marble with an efective radius of 1 μm, applying the approximate value of 42 V can deform the marble to a spherical, shaped one. It was also indicated that the air friction force exerting on the marble during its displacement leads to the constant-velocity motion of the marble eventually. Keywords Liquid marble · Electrostatically manipulation · Microfuidics * Mina Ghanbari m.ghanbari@urmia.ac.ir 1 Mechanical Engineering Department, Engineering Faculty of Khoy, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran 2 Senior Researcher of Institute of Engineering and Technology, South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk, Russia