Quantitative investigation of a 3D bubble trapper in a high shear stress microfluidic chip using computational fluid dynamics and L*A*B* color space
Issued Date
2025-01-13
Resource Type
eISSN
15728781
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85215357313
Pubmed ID
39800809
Journal Title
Biomedical microdevices
Volume
27
Issue
1
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Biomedical microdevices Vol.27 No.1 (2025) , 3
Suggested Citation
Boonsiri W., Aung H.H., Aswakool J., Santironnarong S., Pothipan P., Phatthanakun R., Chancharoen W., Moonwiriyakit A. Quantitative investigation of a 3D bubble trapper in a high shear stress microfluidic chip using computational fluid dynamics and L*A*B* color space. Biomedical microdevices Vol.27 No.1 (2025) , 3. doi:10.1007/s10544-024-00727-w Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/103040
Title
Quantitative investigation of a 3D bubble trapper in a high shear stress microfluidic chip using computational fluid dynamics and L*A*B* color space
Corresponding Author(s)
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
Microfluidic chips often face challenges related to the formation and accumulation of air bubbles, which can hinder their performance. This study investigated a bubble trapping mechanism integrated into microfluidic chip to address this issue. Microfluidic chip design includes a high shear stress section of fluid flow that can generate up to 2.7 Pa and two strategically placed bubble traps. Commercially available magnets are used for fabrication, effectively reducing production costs. The trapping efficiency is assessed through video recordings with a phone camera and analysis of captured air volumes by injecting dye at flow rates of 50, 100, and 150 µL/min. This assessment uses L*A*B* color space with analysis of the perceptual color difference ∆E and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The results demonstrate successful application of the bubble trap mechanism for lab-on-chip bubble detection, effectively preventing bubbles from entering microchannels and mitigating potential damage. Furthermore, the correlation between the L*A*B* color space and volume fraction from CFD simulations allows accurate assessment of trap performance. Therefore, this observation leads to the hypothesis that ∆E could be used to estimate the air volume inside the bubble trap. Future research will validate the bubble trap performance in cell cultures and develop efficient methods for long-term air bubble removal.