The Preston M. Green Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 20052, USA.
Biomicrofluidics. 2013 Sep 19;7(5):54108. doi: 10.1063/1.4822030. eCollection 2013.
Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation is a powerful tool in the design and implementation of microfluidic systems, especially for systems that involve hydrodynamic behavior of objects such as functionalized microspheres, biological cells, or biopolymers in complex structures. In this work, we investigate hydrodynamic trapping of microspheres in a novel microfluidic particle-trap array device by finite element simulations. The accuracy of the time-dependent simulation of a microsphere's motion towards the traps is validated by our experimental results. Based on the simulation, we study the fluid velocity field, pressure field, and force and stress on the microsphere in the device. We further explore the trap array's geometric parameters and critical fluid velocity, which affect the microsphere's hydrodynamic trapping. The information is valuable for designing microfluidic devices and guiding experimental operation. Besides, we provide guidelines on the simulation set-up and release an openly available implementation of our simulation in one of the popular FEM softwares, COMSOL Multiphysics. Researchers may tailor the model to simulate similar microfluidic systems that may accommodate a variety of structured particles. Therefore, the simulation will be of particular interest to biomedical research involving cell or bead transport and migration, blood flow within microvessels, and drug delivery.
计算流体动力学 (CFD) 模拟是设计和实现微流控系统的有力工具，特别是对于涉及到功能化微球、生物细胞或生物聚合物等物体在复杂结构中的流体动力行为的系统。在这项工作中，我们通过有限元模拟研究了新型微流控粒子阱阵列装置中微球的流体动力学捕获。通过我们的实验结果验证了微球运动到陷阱的时变模拟的准确性。基于模拟，我们研究了装置中微球上的流体速度场、压力场、力和应力。我们进一步探讨了影响微球流体动力学捕获的阱阵列的几何参数和临界流体速度。这些信息对于设计微流控器件和指导实验操作非常有价值。此外，我们提供了模拟设置的指南，并在其中一个流行的有限元软件 COMSOL Multiphysics 中发布了我们的模拟的公开实现。研究人员可以根据模型来模拟类似的微流控系统，这些系统可以容纳各种结构化颗粒。因此，该模拟将特别适用于涉及细胞或珠粒运输和迁移、微血管内血流和药物输送的生物医学研究。
