Fluidics is the use of the physical properties of liquids and gases to control mechanical systems. It has been used since the Industrial Revolution and is based on the study of fluid dynamics. Fluidics processors remain in use for fault-intolerant systems. The principles of fluid dynamics are different at different scales, with nanofluidics offering the possibility of faster and more complex circuits.
The application of the physical properties of liquids and gases as a fluid to perform logical operations that control other mechanical systems is called fluidics. Hydraulics and pneumatics, respectively, have provided a foundation since the Industrial Revolution that began around the end of the 1700s. Subsequent study of the dynamics of fluids, especially liquids, has developed into a theoretical model of predictive behavior. This provided engineers with a framework from which to conceive of switches and other logic circuits that have become the forerunners of modern electronics. Although digital circuits dominate the world today, fluidics processors remain in critical use.
Fluidics should not be confused with the compression or expansion of liquids and gases as a source of hydraulic or pneumatic energy. Instead, the flow of a fluid is conceived as a medium capable of changing its character, carrying this information and transmitting it to other flows. The core workings of a fluidic device have no moving parts.
The first set of assumptions about fluid dynamics is the Newtonian physics of classical mechanics. Added to this are the variables of speed, pressure, density and temperature as a function of space and time. A further law is particularly important: the ‘continuous assumption’, that the flow characteristics of a fluid can be described without taking into account the known fact that fluids are composed of discrete molecular particles. Both theoretical and empirical physicists continue to expand the computational understanding of the viscosity, turbulence, and other unique characteristics of a moving fluid. Engineers followed with ever more sophisticated fluidic devices.
Fluidics technology has not had the full opportunity to mature. The first logic circuits, including an amplifier and diode, were invented in the early 1960s. Simultaneously, the same concepts of signal amplification and transmission were accomplished using a flow of electrons, and the invention of the solid-state transistor ushered in a digital revolution.
The physical flow of a fluid obviously cannot match the velocity of an electron. A smooth signal processor typically has an operating speed of a few kilohertz. Unlike an electron, however, the mass flow of a liquid or gas is unaffected by electromagnetic or ion interference. Fluidics therefore remains necessary for the control of some fault-intolerant systems, such as military avionics. Fluidics has also developed into effective analog data processors due to the nature of fluids to flow like a wave.
One of the major challenges of fluidics is that the principles of fluid dynamics are seemingly different at scale. To be sure, climatologists have yet to fully understand how large bodies of water or air currents behave. Similarly, scientists have found that fluids behave very differently when studied at the nanotechnological scale. Future study and application of the latter, called nanofluidics, pose the possibility of significantly faster and more complex circuits, including multiple port arrays for parallel processing.
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