Date of Award
6-2021
Document Type
Thesis - SCU Access Only
Publisher
Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2021.
Department
Bioengineering
First Advisor
Ismail Emre Araci
Abstract
The elastic properties of non-Newtonian liquids results in nonlinear fluid dynamics, hence leading to microfluidic rectifier operation in asymmetric channel designs. We showed that an in silico model of a triangular a microfluidic structure with a viscoelastic liquid exhibits similar anisotropic flow characteristics to the experimental data. We have designed and tested new rectifier geometries to improve the anisotropic flow behavior, and developed a micro-pump, compared the triangular rectifier structure with a concave rectifier design, and demonstrated pumping improvement. The micro-pump device shows promise as a skin mountable capillary sensor, which sees use in physical therapy in the realm of improving patient-clinician dialogue and patient adherence to exercise regiments.
Recommended Citation
Gathman, Gianna; Neighbors, Katie; and Culpepper, Justin, "MOVER: A Microfluidic-Optimized Viscoelastic Rectifier for the Assessment of Human Movement" (2021). Bioengineering Senior Theses. 111.
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/bioe_senior/111