Modelling liquid flow and mass transport in microfluidic devices

Hereby presented is a model for liquid flow and mass transport in microfluidic devices. In detail the oxygen input and the liquid flow generated by a pneumatically actuated micropump integrated in a polymer microfluidic cell culture system was observed. The oxygen content was measured using fluorescence lifetime imaging with immobilized oxygen sensitive microbeads. Flow measurements were performed using the non-invasive Micro-Particle-Image-Velocimetry (µPIV) technique. A complete SimulationX model of the branched fluidic system was developed and calculated results were matched with experimental data. Furthermore the influence of non-Newtonian flow behavior is examined using a transparent blood surrogate. The presented tool is useful to calculate the oxygen supply for human cell culture systems and the formation of oxygen gradients for cell differentiation as well as the flow behavior in branched fluidic systems. So different fluidic layouts and pump designs can be tested to develop more in-vivo like cell culture models.