Blood plasma separation in elevated dimension t-shaped microchannel, Biomedical Microdevices

With the advent of point-of-care diagnostics systems, investigation into properties of bloodat micron scales is gaining fundamental importance. Past research has shown that blooddisplays significantly different properties at small scales than at conventional scales. Thisstudy investigates properties of blood flow in small non-circular passages (hydraulic di-ameter: 95-960 mm) under pulsatile condition. The observations are compared with flowof water under otherwise similar conditions. Prominent observation includes a more stableresponse to abrupt mass flow rate fluctuations as compared to water, which is attributedto the presence of deformable cells in blood. The study also reveals that, the pressure dropfor blood flow with pulsations is less than for steady condition with the difference increas-ing with a reduction in microchannel size and flow rate. Such a comparative study facili-tates development of models for blood flow at micro-scales, and will eventually aid in thedesign of future micro-Total Analysis Systems.Keywords: microfluidics, blood circulation, no