Molecular dynamics simulations of valveless pumping in a closed microfluidic tube-system

Jesper Schmidt Hansen , Johnny Tom Ottesen , Annie Lemarchand

In this paper we study the flow which is generated by a valveless pumping mechanism in a closed micro-fluidic tube-system consisting of two tubes with different radii. This system has been investigated by Ottesen [J. T. Ottesen, J. Math. Biol. 46, 309,(2003)] at a macroscopic level. We find that the results from the microscopic simulations qualitatively agree with the macroscopic results. Especially, is it shown that the direction of the flow changes with changing pumping frequency and the location of the pumping device. We study the local flow generated in the system and show that the stream velocities away from the pumping area can be modeled by a superposition of a plug flow and a zero-mean oscillatory flow.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Jesper Schmidt Hansen, Johnny Tom Ottesen, Annie Lemarchand. Molecular dynamics simulations of valveless pumping in a closed microfluidic tube-system. Molecular Simulation, 2005, 31 (14-15), pp.963-969. ⟨10.1080/08927020500419297⟩. ⟨hal-00514972⟩