Design and optimization of a nozzle for a needle-free injection system

The purpose of this thesis was to develop an optimized nozzle for the needle-free injection device currently under construction in MIT's Bio-Instrumentation Laboratory. Initial predictions from ANSYS, a finite element modeling program, indicated that the injection performance could be noticeably improved with a new nozzle design. After running several flow simulations, a final nozzle design was selected, and a strategy was developed to manufacture the new nozzle. The new nozzle was placed in the injection device and measurements of the jet velocity were recorded via a high speed camera. A 2mm long nozzle with a contoured profile consisting of a linear segment tangent to an arc segment at the nozzle exit produced an exit velocity of 45.5m/s at the end of the injection stroke. This showed almost a 19 percent increase in velocity compared to the older nozzle which produced 38. lm/s upon termination of the injection cycle. However, the results of the new nozzle vary from injection to injection. Thus there is a need for continued testing in the future, and possibly more refined measuring techniques such as depth of penetration into the gel or developing improvements with the current video setup.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Sanchez, Gabriel Nestor

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ian W. Hunter.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32932

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/32932