Fundamentals and applications of fluid- structure interactions in compliant microchannels

Abstract

The development of soft lithography techniques for fabricating microfluidic channels has enabled the study of microscale flows. These studies have become an essential component of experimental research in biology, fluid dynamics, engineering and related fields. A systematic understanding of microscale flows requires that the characteristics of the flow fields be determined accurately. However, as microchannels are scaled down, the size of most experimental probes becomes comparable to or even bigger than the micro-flows themselves, making the measurement of the distribution of flow fields problematic. In this work, we take advantage of the fact that most microfluidic channels are made up of soft materials and can deform during flow. We develop a non-invasive optical measurement technique to correlate the channel deformation with the pressure field inside the microchannel; we then apply this technique to studies of biological flows and flows on superhydrophobic surfaces. [TRUNCATED]