Analytical study of microchannel and passive microvalve -: "Application to Micropump simulator"

Microfluidic systems including microchannels and microvalves, fabricated by micromachining technology, are studied with approached models, either analytical or by simulation. The modelling of rectangular channel and passive valves is presented in this paper, which is divided in three parts. At first, the analytical modelling of a channel versus its shape factor and a normalisation of its fluidic comportment is presented. Then a description of the diffuser-nozzle valve is purposed by applying the general Bernoulli equation. The efficiency of this valve is found to be determined by the value of the shape factor and angle of the diffuser element. The third part is dedicated to numerical simulation of a Tesla diode and purpose an optimisation of its efficiency versus the Tesla geometry. Finally, the realisation and characterisation of prototypes are exposed. Characterisation were applied to rectangular channel and showed good agreement with the analytic modelisation. The analytic expressions, that have been found, can be used in simulations of the flow sensors through the construction of an equivalent electric circuit, and subsequently analysed using SPICE or similar tool "Simulink Matlab@".