Abstract
When designing a droplet microfluidic network, a huge number of parameters have to be considered, which finally have to implement the desired functionality. This results in a complex task as design parameters often depend on and affect each other. In order to handle this complex task, models and simulation methods can be employed in the design process. These models and simulation methods allow for deriving the design, for validating the functionality of the design, and for exploring alternative designs.
However, state-of-the-art simulation tools come with severe limitations, which prevent their utilization for practically relevant applications. More precisely, they are often not dedicated to droplet microfluidics, cannot handle the required physical phenomena, are not publicly available, and can hardly be extended. To address these shortcomings, this chapter introduces an advanced simulation framework at the one-dimensional analysis model, which, eventually, allows to simulate practically relevant applications.
In order to describe the advanced simulation framework, this chapter first reviews abstraction levels—especially the one-dimensional analysis model. Based on that, an advanced simulation framework is proposed, which is finally applied for the design of a practically relevant microfluidic network. A case study demonstrates that using the proposed simulation framework allows to reduce the manual design time and costs, e.g., of a drug screening device from one person month and USD 1200, respectively, to just a fraction of that.
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Notes
- 1.
Note that, further details on the maximal possible pressure are provided later when possible designs are explored using simulation.
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Grimmer, A., Wille, R. (2020). Simulating Droplet Microfluidic Networks. In: Designing Droplet Microfluidic Networks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20713-7_3
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