MOVER: A Microfluidic-Optimized Viscoelastic Rectifier for the Assessment of Human Movement

The elastic properties of non-Newtonian liquids results in nonlinear fluid dynamics, hence leading to microfluidic rectifier operation in asymmetric channel designs. We showed that an in silico model of a triangular a microfluidic structure with a viscoelastic liquid exhibits similar anisotropic flow characteristics to the experimental data. We have designed and tested new rectifier geometries to improve the anisotropic flow behavior, and developed a micro-pump, compared the triangular rectifier structure with a concave rectifier design, and demonstrated pumping improvement. The micro-pump device shows promise as a skin mountable capillary sensor, which sees use in physical therapy in the realm of improving patient-clinician dialogue and patient adherence to exercise regiments