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Home arrow CFD Paper Library arrow Software Tool arrow CFD-ACE arrow Frequency-Dependent Transversal Flow Control In Centrifugal Microfluidics
Frequency-Dependent Transversal Flow Control In Centrifugal Microfluidics
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Thilo Brenner, Thomas Glatzel, Roland Zengerle, and Jens Ducrée IMTEK
Abstract
This work presents a novel microfluidic flow switch which is solely controlled by the Coriolis pseudo force. The Coriolis switch consists of an inverse Y-structure with one common upstream channel and two symmetric outlets. Above a certain threshold frequency, the Coriolis force becomes dominant that the entire flow is diverted into one of the outlets which is selected by the direction of rotation. The threshold frequency has been measured to be 350 rad s-1 (~55.7 Hz) for a channel width of 360 μm and a depth of 125 μm. The results are supported by extensive CFD simulations. 1. INTRODUCTION Rotating disks have been introduced as convenient platforms for liquid handling in microfluidics [1-6]. Liquids on a disk are easily pumped from the center to the outer perimeter by the centrifugal force which creates an artificial gravity in the rotating disk frame. This approach circumvents complex integration of actuation and associated macro-to-micro interfaces as the pumping force is transmitted in a contact-free fashion by the centrifugal field. The actuation unit can readily be adapted from macroscopic drives of commercially available compact-disk (CD) players. Flow control on rotating disks is, for instance, achieved by capillary-burst valves which are hydrophobic patches blocking a flow until a
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