Abstract:Measuring of fluid properties such as dynamic viscosity and density has tremendous potential for various applications from physical to biological to chemical sensing. However, it is almost impossible to affect only one of these properties, as dynamic viscosity and density are coupled. Hence, this paper proposes kinematic viscosity as a comprehensive parameter which can be used to study the effect of fluid properties applicable to various fluids from Newtonian fluids, such as water, to non-Newtonian fluids, such as blood. This paper also proposes an ideal microplatform, namely polymeric suspended microfluidics (SPMF 3 ), with flow plane orthogonal to the bending plane of the structure, along with tested results of various fluids covering a wide range of engineering applications. Kinematic viscosity, also called momentum diffusivity, considers changes in both fluid intermolecular forces and molecular inertia that define dynamic viscosity and fluid density, respectively. In this study a 3D suspended polymeric microfluidic system (SPMF 3 ) was employed to detect changes in fluid parameters such as dynamic viscosity and density during fluid processes. Using this innovative design along with theoretical and experimental results, it is shown that, in fluids, the variations of fluid density and dynamic viscosity are not easily comprehensible due to their interconnectivity. Since any change in a fluid will affect both density and dynamic viscosity, measuring both of them is necessary to identify the fluid or process status. Finally, changes in fluid properties were analyzed using simulation and experiments. The experimental results with salt-DI water solution and milk with different fat concentrations as a colloidal fluid show that kinematic viscosity is a comprehensive parameter that can identify the fluids in a unique way using the proposed microplatform.
Detection and study of bioelements using microfluidic systems has been of great interest in the biodiagnostics field. Microcantilevers are the most used systems in biodetection due to their implementation simplicity which have been used for a wide variety of applications ranging from cellular to molecular diagnosis. However, increasing further the sensitivity of the microcantilever systems have a great effect on the cantilever based sensing for chemical and bio applications. In order to improve further the performance of microcantilevers, a flow force augmented 3D suspended microchannel is proposed using which microparticles can be conveyed through a microchannel inside the microcantilever to the detection area. This innovative microchannel design addresses the low sensitivity issue by increasing its sensitivity up to 5 times than the earlier reported similar microsystems. Moreover, fabricating this microsystem out of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) would eliminate external exciter dependency in many detection applications such as biodiagnostics. In this study, the designed microsystem has been analyzed theoretically, simulated and tested. Moreover, the microsystem has been fabricated and tested under different conditions, the results of which have been compared with simulation results. Finally, its innovative fabrication process and issues are reported and discussed.
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