Leveraging Viscous Peeling to Create and Activate Soft Actuators and Microfluidic Devices

Area of Science:

• Microfluidics
• Soft Robotics
• Materials Science
• Fluid Dynamics

Background:

• Microfluidics and soft robotics rely on intricate internal channels within solid structures.
• Current fabrication methods often struggle with creating micron-scale internal cavities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore viscous peeling as a method for fabricating and activating microfluidic networks and soft actuators.
• To develop a model for the elastic-viscous dynamics of viscous peeling.
• To demonstrate the creation of micro-scale components from millimeter-scale structures.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing viscous peeling by introducing pressurized fluid between two elastic solids to create internal cavities.
• Developing a mathematical model for the nonlinear elastic-viscous dynamics.
• Experimental fabrication and testing of microfluidic valves and soft actuators.

Main Results:

• Successfully created microfluidic channels and valves using millimeter-scale components via viscous peeling.
• Demonstrated the transient dynamics of viscous peeling-based soft actuators.
• Validated the developed model against experimental data, showing excellent agreement.

Conclusions:

• Viscous peeling offers a versatile and scalable approach for fabricating microfluidic devices and soft actuators.
• The developed model accurately captures the complex fluid-structure interactions.
• This technique bypasses the need for high-resolution microfabrication for creating internal cavities.