Use of Numerical Methods for Modeling and Simulating Capillary Driven Flows in Microchannels

摘要

Today, medical test strips are used for rapid diagnostics and the quick and easy determination of biomedi-cally relevant parameters, such as the content of glucose of the blood. For the transport of the test fluid into the test strip the capillary effect will be made use of. The technical progress achieved in microsystems engineering in the past years allows to fabricate precisely microchannels with defined structures using microstruc-turing techniques. Consequently, a selective control of the flow on the basis of an adequate geometrical design is possible. The use of computer-based simulators during the development of the medical test strips can reduce the costs and the time-to-market significantly. In this article the validation of the simulation tools FLOW-3D by FlowScience and CFX4 by AEA Technology will be discussed with regard to capillary driven flows. For this purpose, simple basic models have been applied. For the modelling and simulation of a medical test strip, a concept has been developed. It shall also be described in the present article.