Abstract

An important field of study in microfluidics is in the realm of blood rheology in microdevices. Many types of geometries have been developed for different lab-on-chip applications for sampling and analysis. The majority of experimental and numerical studies have revolved around straight blood vessel geometries, but in recent years there have been more complex profiles analyzed, such as microbifurcations. Some devices are developed to study blood flow similar to the microvascular network, such as diverging and converging bifurcations to study arterioles, which form a closed network. Cell adhesion studies of microchannels are also common, where symmetric bifurcation and confluence has been examined. Since sharp turns as well as bifurcation and confluence are common, the hemodynamics should be examined for many different shapes and the effects of channel geometry to the adhesion phenomena should be looked at. Different devices have different goals, such as isolating circulating tumor cells from blood, separating leukocytes from blood and isolating circulating tumor cells from peripheral blood. Studies have been targeted in breast cancer, cervical cancer and smooth muscle cell applications. Some studies provide result as to the role that the hemodynamic forces have on the recruitment of the metastatic cancer cells to endothelial cells, but the effects of device geometry on adhesion isn’t typically discussed formally. It has been shown that more complex geometries exhibit more non-uniform cell adhesion, adding to the confusion in the results and that an improvement in the velocity uniformity has been shown to improve the uniformity of the cell adhesion in sharp turn devices.

Document Type

Final Report

Author's School

McKelvey School of Engineering

Author's Department

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Class Name

Mechanical Engineering and Material Sciences Independent Study

Date of Submission

6-1-2018

Download

Share

COinS