Microfluidic Channel Network Analysis of a Lab-on-a-Chip Device Using Electrical Circuit Analogy

摘要

This paper discusses the use of electrical circuit analogy for microfluidic channel networks in a Lab-on-a-Chip (LoC) device. LoC devices are comprised of microfluidic channels which serve various purposes such as mixing, droplet generation, and separation. As conventional fluid dynamic analysis for complex microfluidic geometries requires a considerable amount of computational time, the use of the electrical circuit analogy has become popular in recent years for microfluidic devices. By using Hagen-Poiseuille's law and Ohm's law analogies, the use of the electrical circuit analogy for different geometries with single phase and two-phase fluidic flow systems are discussed in the research. Both CFD and electrical circuit simulations are conducted and results are compared in this paper. It was identified that the electrical circuit analogy is suitable for the single-phase fluid phase flow behaviour, whereas the analogy is not suitable to analyse the multi-phase flows.