UW’s Dejam Helps Advance Understanding of Solute Transport in Microfluidic Systems

Research recently published by the University of Wyoming's Morteza Dejam provides insight into the role fluid properties and flow mechanisms play in solute transport, offering a mathematical framework to analyze complex transport processes in microfluidic systems and the potential to support the future design and optimization of microfluidic technologies.

The research article, "Reduced-Order Model for Solute Transport in Mixed Electro-Osmotic and Pressure-Driven Flows of Viscoelastic Fluids in Microchannels," investigated how solutes (dissolved substances) are transported and dispersed in microchannels under combined electro-osmotic and pressure-driven flows. It was published in Physical Review E, a leading journal of the American Physical Society in July.

The article was co-written by Dejam, an associate professor in UW's Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering, School of Computing, and Hydrologic Science Interdisciplinary Program, along with H. Hassanzadeh, a professor of chemical and petroleum engineering at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.

Microfluidic systems are widely used in applications where the precise movement and control of small quantities of fluids and dissolved substances are important. Understanding solute transport in these systems becomes particularly challenging when the fluid behaves differently from ordinary liquids, flowing while also having slightly stretchy properties, Dejam says.

During their research, Dejam and Hassanzadeh developed a simplified mathematical model to predict how dissolved substances move and spread through complex fluid flows. The model helps determine how variations in fluid movement affect the spreading of a substance and its concentration as it travels through a microchannel.

Dejam and Hassanzadeh examined how dissolved substances spread through different types of fluid flows. Their results show that substances generally spread more as the fluid moves faster and as its elastic properties become more pronounced. The study also found that this spreading can change in more complex ways, depending on how pressure and electrically driven forces work together to move the fluid.

"By improving our understanding of how dissolved substances move and spread in complex fluids, this research can help scientists and engineers better predict and control transport processes in microfluidic systems," Dejam says.

This could support the development and optimization of technologies used in areas such as biomedical diagnostics, chemical analysis, drug delivery and other applications where precise control of fluids and dissolved substances at very small scales is important.

To read the full article, visit https://doi.org/10.1103/82vs-4hyj.