This microfluidic resistance calculator application note describes:
Elveflow’s online microfluidic calculator has been designed to help researchers and especially non-specialists of the microfluidics field.
Check out our dedicated tutorial with Kalyan Veerendra!
The hydraulic resistance describes the resistance to flow that occurs as a result of a volume flow through hydraulic elements such as tubings, valves and… microfluidic channel! It is defined as the ratio of pressure drop to volume flow and needs to be estimated for any items of your microfluidic system.
The microfluidic channel or tubing resistance results in pressure drop within the microfluidic circuit. Indeed, each component of the microfluidic system is likely to counteract the volume flow of your solution as soon as it is being injected.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that a huge discrepancy of microfluidic resistance between the tubing and the channel could impact the final flow rate obtained in your microfluidic channel and the precision of the flow control.
It should be noted that every microfluidic chip and setup are different. Those differences will likely have an impact on the calculations performed using the tool.
It is likely that the actual parameters would vary based on the real world experimental conditions.
Therefore, each time you make adjustments to your parameters, make sure to recalculate the results.
Here, we use a generic microfluidic system to give you a basic understanding of the parameters to select the right components for your setup.
Here are some of the many applications made easier by this calculator:
For more understanding of the working principle of pressure-driven flow controlled microfluidics, watch the following video.
All those elements will impact the calculation of your flow rate and the microfluidic resistance of your system. For more insight into those parameters, please refer to this application note.
In the following, the microfluidic hydraulic resistance of your system will be estimated for each part of your microfluidic setup from the tubing to the channel resistance.
Please refer to the application note: how to implement/convert the fluid properties inside my reservoir.
Either you can select from the drop down menu of the commonly used fluids in microfluidics or custom parameters for viscosity and density.
For the sake of this demo, we will use medium with 10% serum, commonly used.
In the former application note, the tubing resistance was considered as negligible and small compared to the channel microfluidic resistance. Our tool compares the resistance in the channel and the tubing to determine which is the most resistive.
Tubing microfluidic resistance
To calculate the microfluidic resistance of the tubing:
In the case you are using or intend to use different tubing diameters in your experiment, it makes sense to enter details about the tubing with the smallest inner diameter to have the highest hydraulic resistance.
The hydraulic resistance of your channel will be estimated with the channel geometry that needs to be detailed in the Part 3, calculator results.
We can see the calculator automatically updates the calculations with data from Part 2.
The shear stress result is in accordance with the experimental data given by the IBIDI datasheet.
Also, the calculator gives you recommendations on:
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Do you want tips on how to best set up your microfluidic experiment? Do you need inspiration or a different angle to take on your specific problem? Well, we probably have an application note just for you, feel free to check them out!
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