Bubble-induced damping in displacement-driven microfluidic flows

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2012 Aug;86(2 Pt 2):026301. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.86.026301. Epub 2012 Aug 1.

Abstract

Bubble damping in displacement-driven microfluidic flows was theoretically and experimentally investigated for a Y-channel microfluidic network. The system was found to exhibit linear behavior for typical microfluidic flow conditions. The bubbles induced a low-pass filter behavior with a characteristic cutoff frequency that scaled proportionally with flow rate and inversely with bubble volume and exhibited a minimum with respect to the relative resistances of the connecting channels. A theoretical model based on the electrical circuit analogy was able to predict experimentally observed damping of fluctuations with excellent agreement. Finally, a flowmeter with high resolution (0.01 μL/min) was demonstrated as an application of the bubble-aided stabilization. This study may aid in the design of many other bubble-stabilized microfluidic systems.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Electrochemistry / methods
  • Equipment Design
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / methods*
  • Microfluidics*
  • Models, Statistical
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Physics / methods
  • Pressure