Foam-based microfluidics: experiments and modeling with lumped elements

A new way of modeling unsteady flows through a deformable polymeric foam is proposed, based on dedicated lumped elements and elementary flow experiments. The electrical analogy commonly used in the modeling of channel microfluidics and biological flows is extended here with the aim to model transient flows in 2-D open-cell foams deformed by a normal stress externally applied. Lumped (foam) elements are defined in order to take account of both the deformability of open-cell foams and the mechanical coupling with internal liquid flows. Supporting experiments are numerically modeled, based on liquid flows generated in foam elements from external means: a syringe pump, a uniaxial compression or a peristaltic actuation.