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Transfer characteristics of dynamic biochemical signals in non-reversing pulsatile flows in a shallow Y-shaped microfluidic channel: signal filtering and nonlinear amplitude-frequency modulation

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Abstract

The transports of the dynamic biochemical signals in the non-reversing pulsatile flows in the mixing microchannel of a Y-shaped microfluidic device are ana- lyzed. The results show that the mixing micro-channel acts as a low-pass filter, and the biochemical signals are nonlinearly modulated by the pulsatile flows, which depend on the biochemical signal frequency, the flow signal frequency, and the biochemical signal transporting distance. It is concluded that, the transfer characteristics of the dynamic biochemical signals, which are transported in the time-varying flows, should be carefully considered for better loading biochemical signals on the cells cultured on the bottom of the microfluidic channel.

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Abbreviations

W :

micro-channel width, m

W 1 :

width of Solution A in the mixing micro-channel, m

W 2 :

width of Solution B in the mixing micro-channel, m

ε :

ratio of W 2 to W 1

H :

height of the mixing microchannel, m

η :

fluid viscosity, Pa·s

D :

solute diffusivity, m2/s

u :

fluid velocity in the z-direction, m/s

u̅ :

height-wise averaging velocity of the fluid, m/s

Pe :

Petlet number, Pe = u̅W/D

D eff :

effective solute diffusivity coefficient, m2/s

p :

pressure, Pa

Q :

total flow rate in the microchannel, m3/s

Q A :

flow rate at Inlet A, m3/s

Q B :

flow rate at Inlet B, m3/s

f v :

frequency of the pulsatile flow, Hz

τ w :

wall shear stress, Pa

ϕ̅(x, z, t):

height-wise averaging concentration of the solution, mol/m3

ϕ(x, y, z, t):

solution concentration, mol/m3

ϕ̅ 0(t) :

height-wise averaging concentration of the solution at Inlet A, mol/m3

ϕ̅ 0 :

a reference value of the height-wise averaging concentration of the solution at Inlet A, mol/m3

f ϕ :

dynamic biochemical signal frequency, Hz

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to appreciate Dr.Hong TANG for the insightful advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, Liaoning Province, China

    Zongzheng Chen, Weimo Yuan, A. R. Aziz, Zhengming Gao, Depei Zeng, Bo Liu & Kairong Qin

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  1. Zongzheng Chen
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  2. Weimo Yuan
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  3. A. R. Aziz
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  4. Zhengming Gao
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  5. Depei Zeng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kairong Qin.

Additional information

Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11172060 and 11672065)

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Chen, Z., Yuan, W., Aziz, A.R. et al. Transfer characteristics of dynamic biochemical signals in non-reversing pulsatile flows in a shallow Y-shaped microfluidic channel: signal filtering and nonlinear amplitude-frequency modulation. Appl. Math. Mech.-Engl. Ed. 38, 1481–1496 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10483-017-2251-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10483-017-2251-6

Keywords

Chinese Library Classification

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification

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