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Computer-aided design of microfluidic resistive network using circuit partition and CFD-based optimization and application in microalgae assessment for marine ecological toxicity

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Abstract

We present an automatic design process for microfluidic dilution network towards marine ecological toxicity assessment on microalgae. Based on the hydraulic–electric circuit analogy, we defined an abstract specification using computer-aided designing system. Several approaches, especially circuit partition, were applied to minimize design effort. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was exploited to convert the electrics specification to fabrication model. We automatically designed the combinational-mixing-serial dilution microfluidics to generate parallel stepwise gradients for mixing chemicals (binary/ternary/quaternary mixture) using the present algorithm. We critically discussed design rules and evaluated the microfluidic performance by colorimetric analysis. To examine whether these microfluidic chips can be used for toxicity test on microalgae, single and joint toxic effects of heavy metals (copper, mercury, zinc, and cadmium) were examined on line. In all cases, dose-related toxic responses were successfully detected. These results provided a solution for designing resistive network using circuit partition and CFD-based optimization and a route to develop a promising user-friendly alternative for microalgae bioassays as well as cell-based screening experiments in risk assessment.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41476085, 81471807), Scientific Research Project of Liaoning Education Department (LJQ2015005) and Dalian Innovation Project for Talents (2015R087).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemical and Environmental Engineering Institute, Dalian University, Dalian, 116622, China

    Bingxu Han, Guoxia Zheng, Junfeng Wei, Yusuo Yang & Qian Zhang

  2. Medical School, Dalian University, Dalian, 116622, China

    Ling Lu & Yunhua Wang

  3. Environmental Micro Total Analysis Lab, Dalian University, Dalian, 116622, China

    Bingxu Han, Guoxia Zheng, Junfeng Wei, Yusuo Yang, Ling Lu, Qian Zhang & Yunhua Wang

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  1. Bingxu Han
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Han, B., Zheng, G., Wei, J. et al. Computer-aided design of microfluidic resistive network using circuit partition and CFD-based optimization and application in microalgae assessment for marine ecological toxicity. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 42, 785–797 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-019-02082-0

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