Simulation of a Microfluidic Gradient Generator using Lattice Boltzmann Methods

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the use of Lattice Boltzmann methods to simulate microfluidic gradient generators, effectively handling complex geometries and boundary conditions for studying cellular responses.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of Lattice Boltzmann methods to simulate microfluidic gradient generators with complex geometries and dynamic boundary conditions.

Findings

LBM effectively models complex microfluidic geometries.

The method handles high Peclet number conditions.

It accurately simulates boundary condition switching.

Abstract

Microfluidics provides a powerful and versatile technology to accurately control spatial and temporal conditions for cell culturing and can therefore be used to study cellular responses to gradients. Here we use Lattice Boltzmann methods (LBM) to solve both the Navier-Stokes equation (NSE) for the fluid and the coupled convection-diffusion equation (CDE) for the compounds that form the diffusion-based gradient. The design of a microfluidic chamber for diffusion-based gradients must avoid flow through the cell chamber. This can be achieved by alternately opening the source and the sink channels. The fast toggling of microfluidic valves requires switching between different boundary conditions. We demonstrate that the LBM is a powerful method for handling complex geometries, high Peclet number conditions, discontinuities in the boundary conditions, and multiphysics coupling.