Principles and Applications of Fluidics in Microsystems

拟议的研究涉及一系列微系统中流体行为的详细数值和实验研究，这些微系统是许多先进工业系统的组成部分。具体而言，它将解决多孔介质中的多相流、微通道中的多组分流以及精确的芯片微滴操作等领域。可能的影响领域包括能源和生命科学，拟议的研究计划使我们能够开发出解决现有技术障碍的高效流体系统。了解多孔结构中的多相流将对燃料电池等性能受流体输送限制的应用产生影响。在这项研究中，将开发实验和数值工具来表征多孔结构的流动特性，并确定影响传输的关键参数，从而设计出具有增强传输特性的工程微结构。使用反应性表面（负载有捕获分子）执行颗粒捕获的微流体装置的效率可能受到由于流动和与表面的相互作用引起的颗粒变形的显著影响。我的研究重点是先进的数值和实验技术，以模拟变形对颗粒捕获效率和精确定位的影响，这可以帮助设计需要高捕获效率的应用的几何形状（例如，水性病原体检测）或单细胞固定（例如，细胞生长）。平面电极上的芯片上微滴操作已经显示出涉及稀有生物样品（例如，法医应用），对于这些应用，必须极其小心地从碎片中提取目标分子。 我的研究旨在通过定义最佳设计参数（例如，电极几何形状），从而提供涉及颗粒分离和液滴分裂的高效流体操作。总之，对流体系统的深入研究在多学科研究和广泛的行业中有许多应用，这些研究和行业对加拿大的经济和生活质量至关重要。

The proposed research involves the detailed numerical and experimental study of fluid behavior in a range of microsystems that are an integrated part of many advanced industrial systems. Specifically, it will tackle areas of multi-phase flow in porous media, multi-component flow in microchannels, and precise on-chip microdroplet operations. Likely areas of impact include energy and life sciences where the proposed research program enables us to develop high efficiency fluidic systems resolving the existing technological barriers. Understanding multi-phase flow in porous structure will have an impact on applications such as fuel cells for which the performance is limited by fluid transport. In this research experimental and numerical tools will be developed to characterize the flow properties of porous structures and identify the key parameters influencing transport leading to the design of an engineered microstructure with enhanced transport characteristics. Efficiency of microfluidic devices performing particle capture using a reactive surface (loaded with capture molecules) can be significantly affected by particle deformation due to flow and interaction with the surface. My research focuses on advanced numerical and experimental techniques to simulate the effect of deformation on particle capture efficiency and exact positioning which can help with the design of geometries for applications requiring high capture efficiency (e.g., waterborne pathogen detection) or single cell immobilization (e.g., cell growth). On-chip microdroplet manipulation on planar electrodes has shown potentials for applications involving analysis of rare biosamples (e.g., forensic applications) for which extraction of target molecules from debris must be performed with utmost care. My research aims to increase the efficiency of extraction process by defining optimum design parameters (e.g., electrode geometries) providing high efficiency fluid operations involving particle separation and droplet splitting. In summary the proposed in-depth investigation of fluidic systems has numerous applications in multidisciplinary research and broad industries that are crucial to the economy and quality of life in Canada.