Alves M.A.
Universidade do Porto - Faculdade de Engenharia, PT
Keywords: computational rheology, microfluidic devices, optimal shape design, viscoelastic fluid
In this work we present a fully automated procedure for the design of microfluidic devices with optimal performance. The proposed approach combines an in-house finite-volume viscoelastic flow solver, an optimizer, and an automatic mesh generation and adaptation procedure. The methodology can be used in the automatic search of the ideal shape of a given flow geometry, in order to achieve optimal performance. The procedure is fully automatic and general, and can be coupled with any computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver. In this work we use our in-house viscoelastic flow solver and apply the methodology in the design of two microfluidic devices with optimal performance under laminar flow conditions, namely: (i) development of a microfluidic analogue of an electronic diode, which presents large anisotropic flow resistance in both flow directions; (ii) design of a microfluidic T-channel that generates a strong extensional flow with a nearly constant extensional rate along the centerline.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 2, Nanotechnology 2011: Electronics, Devices, Fabrication, MEMS, Fluidics and Computational
Published: June 13, 2011
Pages: 474 - 477
Industry sectors: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing | Sensors, MEMS, Electronics
Topic: Micro & Bio Fluidics, Lab-on-Chip
ISBN: 978-1-4398-7139-3