title: A Laminar Flow-Based Microfluidic Tesla Pump via Lithography Enabled 3D Printing.
abstract: Tesla turbine and its applications in power generation and fluid flow were demonstrated by Nicholas Tesla in 1913. However, its real-world implementations were limited by the difficulty to maintain laminar flow between rotor disks, transient efficiencies during rotor acceleration, and the lack of other applications that fully utilize the continuous flow outputs. All of the aforementioned limits of Tesla turbines can be addressed by scaling to the microfluidic flow regime. Demonstrated here is a microscale Tesla pump designed and fabricated using a Digital Light Processing (DLP) based 3D printer with 43 µm lateral and 30 µm thickness resolutions. The miniaturized pump is characterized by low Reynolds number of 1000 and a flow rate of up to 12.6 mL/min at 1200 rpm, unloaded. It is capable of driving a mixer network to generate microfluidic gradient. The continuous, laminar flow from Tesla turbines is well-suited to the needs of flow-sensitive microfluidics, where the integrated pump will enable numerous compact lab-on-a-chip applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bioengineering Program, University of Michigan at Dearborn, 2088 IAVS Building, 4901 Evergreen Rd., Dearborn, MI 48128, USA. mihabhab@umich.edu.
authors.forename: Mohammed-Baker
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Habhab
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bioengineering Program, University of Michigan at Dearborn, 2088 IAVS Building, 4901 Evergreen Rd., Dearborn, MI 48128, USA. tismail@umich.edu.
authors.forename: Tania
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ismail
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bioengineering Program, University of Michigan at Dearborn, 2088 IAVS Building, 4901 Evergreen Rd., Dearborn, MI 48128, USA. jfjlo@umich.edu.
authors.forename: Joe Fujiou
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Lo
keywords: 3D printing; DLP; Tesla turbine; Tesla valve; microfluidic