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• Zhang, Y
• Liu, Z
• Swaddiwudhipong, S
• Miao, H
• Ding, Z
• Yang, Z
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• Zhang, Y
• Liu, Z
• Swaddiwudhipong, S
• Miao, H
• Ding, Z
• Yang, Z
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• Liu, Z
• Swaddiwudhipong, S
• Miao, H
• Ding, Z
• Yang, Z

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J. Funct. Biomater. 2012, 3(3), 464-479; doi:10.3390/jfb3030464

Article

pH-Sensitive Hydrogel for Micro-Fluidic Valve

Yan Zhang ¹ , Zishun Liu ^2,3,* , Somsak Swaddiwudhipong ¹ , Haiyan Miao ² , Zhiwei Ding ⁴  and Zhengzhi Yang ⁴

¹ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576, Singapore ² Institute of High Performance Computing, Agency of Science, Technology and Research, 1 Fusionopolis Way, #16-16 Connexis, Singapore 138632, Singapore ³ ICAM, State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Structure Strength and Vibration, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China ⁴ Engineering Science Programme, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576, Singapore

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 30 May 2012; in revised form: 24 June 2012 / Accepted: 4 July 2012 / Published: 10 July 2012

Download PDF Full-Text [2057 KB, uploaded 10 July 2012 14:06 CEST]

Abstract: The deformation behavior of a pH-sensitive hydrogel micro-fluidic valve system is investigated using inhomogeneous gel deformation theory, in which the fluid-structure interaction (FSI) of the gel solid and fluid flow in the pipe is considered. We use a finite element method with a well adopted hydrogel constitutive equation, which is coded in commercial software, ABAQUS, to simulate the hydrogel valve swelling deformation, while FLUENT is adopted to model the fluid flow in the pipe of the hydrogel valve system. The study demonstrates that FSI significantly affects the gel swelling deformed shapes, fluid flow pressure and velocity patterns. FSI has to be considered in the study on fluid flow regulated by hydrogel microfluidic valve. The study provides a more accurate and adoptable model for future design of new pH-sensitive hydrogel valves, and also gives a useful guideline for further studies on hydrogel fluidic applications.

Keywords: hydrogel; finite element; fluid structure interaction; micro-fluidic valve

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