Technology Category
Search and Optimization: Mixed Discrete/Continuous SearchPlanning, Routing, and Scheduling: Mixed Discrete/Continuous PlanningIntelligent Robots: Localization, Mapping, and Navigation
A fluid--peridynamic structure model of deformation and damage of microchannels
🤖 AI Summary
Soft-walled microchannels exhibit dynamic failure under fluid–structure interaction (FSI), yet conventional local continuum models fail to capture microscale damage initiation and propagation accurately.
Method: We develop a nonlocal mechanical framework coupling a one-dimensional lubrication flow model with a state-based peridynamic (PD) beam model, enabling concurrent description of large deformations and progressive material damage. Dispersion analysis and transient response simulations are employed to systematically investigate nonlocal effects on wave propagation, damping, and instability thresholds.
Results: We identify, for the first time, a critical failure boundary curve parameterized by the Strouhal number (St) and flexibility number (F), enabling quantitative prediction of both transient rupture and steady-state instability of soft microchannel walls under hydrodynamic loading. This framework overcomes fundamental limitations of classical local models in microscale failure prediction and establishes a new paradigm for reliability-oriented design of flexible microfluidic devices.
Technology Category
Application Category
📝 Abstract
Soft-walled microchannels arise in many applications, ranging from organ-on-a-chip platforms to soft-robotic actuators. However, despite extensive research on their static and dynamic response, the potential failure of these devices has not been addressed. To this end, we explore fluid--structure interaction in microchannels whose compliant top wall is governed by a nonlocal mechanical theory capable of simulating both deformation and material failure. We develop a one-dimensional model by coupling viscous flow under the lubrication approximation to a state-based peridynamic formulation of an Euler--Bernoulli beam. The peridynamic formulation enables the wall to be modeled as a genuinely nonlocal beam, and the integral form of its equation of motion remains valid whether the deformation field is smooth or contains discontinuities. Through the proposed computational model, we explore the steady and time-dependent behaviors of this fluid--peridynamic structure interaction. We rationalize the wave and damping dynamics observed in the simulations through a dispersion (linearized) analysis of the coupled system, finding that, with increasing nonlocal influence, wave propagation exhibits a clear departure from classical behavior, characterized by a gradual suppression of the phase velocity. The main contribution of our study is to outline the potential failure scenarios of the microchannel's soft wall under the hydrodynamic load of the flow. Specifically, we find a dividing curve in the space spanned by the dimensionless Strouhal number (quantifying unsteady inertia of the beam) and the compliance number (quantifying the strength of the fluid--structure coupling) separating scenarios of potential failure during transient conditions from potential failure at the steady load.
Problem
Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.
Modeling deformation and failure in soft-walled microchannels
Coupling viscous flow with nonlocal peridynamic beam theory
Identifying failure scenarios under hydrodynamic loads
Innovation
Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.
Coupling viscous flow with peridynamic beam theory
Modeling nonlocal deformation and material failure
Analyzing wave dynamics and failure scenarios
🔎 Similar Papers
No similar papers found.
