Modeling the closing behavior of a smart hydrogel micro-valve. (May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mehner, Philipp J; Allerdißen, Merle; Haefner, Sebastian; Voigt, Andreas; Marschner, Uwe; Richter, Andreas
• Is Part Of: Journal of intelligent material systems and structures. Volume 30:Number 9(2019)
• Page Start: 1409
• Page End: 1418
• Publication Date: 2019-05
• Subjects: active polymers -- modeling polymers -- hydrogel-based micro-valve -- ANSYS -- multi-field simulation -- concentration-triggered hydrogel -- circuit descriptions -- lab-on-a-chip; Smart materials -- Periodicals; Intelligent control systems -- Periodicals; Artificial intelligence -- Periodicals; Matériaux intelligents -- Périodiques; Commande intelligente -- Périodiques; Intelligence artificielle -- Périodiques; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1177/1045389X17742726
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1045-389X

Abstract

Smart hydrogel micro-valves are essential components of micro-chemo-mechanical fluid systems. These valves are based on phase-changeable polymers. They can open and close micro-fluidic channels depending on the chemical concentration or the temperature in the fluid. A concept of finite element–based modeling in combination with network methods to simulate concentration-triggered, phase-changeable hydrogels is proposed. We introduce a temperature domain as a replication domain to substitute insufficiently implemented domains. With the used simulation tools, problems are highlighted and their solutions are presented. The computed parameters of such valves are included in a circuit representation, which is capable of efficiently computing large-scale micro-fluidic systems. These methods will help predict, visualize, and understand polymeric swelling behavior as well as the performance of large-scale chip applications before any complex experiment is performed.