Pressure-Driven Laminar Flow in Tangential Microchannels: an Elastomeric Microfluidic Switch

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Rustem F. Ismagilov ; David Rosmarin ; Paul J. A. Kenis ; Daniel T. Chiu ; Wendy Zhang ; Howard A. Stone ; and George M. Whitesides
• 刊名：Analytical Chemistry
• 出版年：2001
• 出版时间：October 1, 2001
• 年：2001
• 卷：73
• 期：19
• 页码：4682 - 4687
• 全文大小：281K
• 年卷期：v.73,no.19(October 1, 2001)
• ISSN：1520-6882

文摘

This paper describes laminar fluid flow through a three-dimensional elastomeric microstructure formed by twomicrofluidic channels, fabricated in layers that contact oneanother face-to-face (typically at a 90images/entities/deg.gif"> angle), with the fluidflows in tangential contact. There are two ways to controlfluid flow through these tangentially connected microchannels. First, the flow profiles through the crossings aresensitive to the aspect ratio of the channels; the flow canbe controlled by applying external pressure and changingthis aspect ratio. Second, the flow direction of an individual laminar stream in multiphase laminar flow dependson the lateral position of the stream within the channel;this position can be controlled by injecting additionalstreams of fluid into the channel. We describe twomicrofluidic switches based on these two ways for controlling fluid flow through tangential microchannels andpresent theoretical arguments that explain the observeddependence of the flow profiles on the aspect ratio of thechannels.