THE CHARACTERIZATION OF A MICROCHANNEL DEVICE USING LASER BASED MICRO-PIV
Open Access
- Author:
- Wang , Sicong
- Area of Honors:
- Bioengineering
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Siyang Zheng, Thesis Supervisor
Siyang Zheng, Thesis Supervisor
Peter J Butler, Thesis Honors Advisor
Dr. William O Hancock, Faculty Reader - Keywords:
- microchannel
microfluidics
micro-PIV
soft lithography
murray law
circulating tumor cell
velocity profile
volumetric flow rate
pulastive flow
PDMS - Abstract:
- Cancer has been one of the most deadly diseases in the world. Numerous studies have been done in this field, but still to this day, no significant breakthrough has produced viable treatment for this vicious illness, besides early surgical resection of the tumors. 90% of the cancer patients died because of metastatic disease, which is believed to propagate by the spreading of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) through vascular and lymphatic circulation. New research needed to be done to test and study the behavior of the CTCs, one of the primary sources of new tumors, in the environment of the human bloodstream. Although single channeled devices have been created to mimic the condition of human blood vessels, and their flow velocity profile has been tested, no comprehensive multi-branched device has been designed and tested. In this study, a micro-fabricated device is designed according to Murray’s law to mimic the natural changes in blood flow accompanying blood vessel branching in order understand the effects of flow rate, shear stress and branching on CTCs. Through testing using micro-PIV, the velocity profile of the device is generated and the volumetric velocities of the micro-channels are calculated. The experimental values of the volumetric velocity deviate from the theoretical values, which prove that this device needed to be revised. However, the researchers could use the existing device, calibrated with the velocity profile collected, to conduct further studies on CTCs.