Particle Intensity Analysis for Fluid Flow Evaluation
In this study, to evaluate the tendency of fluid flow caused by the RMS cilia array in the channel experiments, an intensity analysis of the fluorescent particles in the fluid was performed using MATLAB. The images obtained from the channel experiments were analyzed at intervals of 20 s, and each image was divided into nine sections at intervals of 2 mm along the x-axis. The color intensity (0–255) values of the particles in each section were averaged using the following equation:
\(Average\_intensity\left(i\right)=Sum(i)/N(i)\)…………………….Equation 1
where i is the number of sections, Sum (i ) represents the total color intensity in section i, andN (i ) represents the number of pixels in section i , excluding cilia. As more particles were distributed in the section, darker images were obtained and lower intensity values were calculated. Therefore, the intensity value was inverted to describe the degree of particle distribution, and the inverted value was defined as the particle factor, given by the following equation.
\(Particle\_factor(i)=255-Average\_intensity(i)\)…………Equation 2