Materials | |
Geometry Effects of Axisymmetric Flow-Focusing Microchannels for Single Cell Encapsulation | |
Mohammad Nooranidoost1  Ranganathan Kumar1  | |
[1] Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA; | |
关键词: flow-focusing; cell encapsulation; microfluidics; front-tracking method; | |
DOI : 10.3390/ma12172811 | |
来源: DOAJ |
【 摘 要 】
Cell microencapsulation is a promising technique to protect living cells in biomedical applications. Microfluidic devices can be utilized to control the production of high-throughput cell-laden droplets. This paper demonstrates the effects of flow-focusing geometry on the droplet size, frequency of droplet generation, and number of cells per droplet. Orifice radius, orifice length, and nozzle-to-orifice distance can significantly influence the flow-field and manipulate droplet formation. This paper analyzes these geometry effects using a numerical front-tracking method for the three fluid phases. It is found that as the orifice radius increases, the drop size and the number of cells in the droplet increase. For a short orifice radius, increasing the orifice length results in the generation of smaller droplets at higher frequency and fewer cells per droplet. On the other hand, for a longer orifice, droplet production is invariant with respect to orifice length. It is also found that shorter distances between the nozzle and the orifice lead to a more controlled and uniform production of droplets. When the nozzle-to-orifice length is increased, the droplet formation becomes non-uniform and unpredictable. Probability charts are plotted with respect to the orifice length and orifice radius, which show that a greater than
【 授权许可】
Unknown