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Lab on a Chip

Microfluidic & nanofluidic technologies for chemistry, physics, biology, and bioengineering




Paper

Lab Chip, 2009, 9, 2691 - 2697, DOI: 10.1039/b903960k


Nonlinear pressure-flow relationships for passive microfluidic valves

Erkin Seker, Daniel C. Leslie, Hossein Haj-Hariri, James P. Landers, Marcel Utz and Matthew R. Begley


An analytical solution is presented for the nonlinear pressure-flow relationship of deformable passive valves, which are formed by bonding a deformable film over etched channels separated by a weir. A fluidic pathway connecting the channels is opened when the upstream pressure creates a tunnel along a predefined narrow strip where the film is not bonded to the weir. When the width of the strip is comparable to the inlet channel width, the predicted closed-form pressure-flow rate relationship is in excellent agreement with experiments, which determine pressures by measuring film deflections for prescribed flow rates. The validated closed-form models involve no fitting parameters, and provide the foundation to design passive diodes with specific nonlinear pressure-flow characteristics.

Graphical abstract image for this article  (ID: b903960k)