Design and modeling of microfluidic systems for multiple chromatographic separations

•The distribution of flow rate in a microchip was simulated to optimize its geometry.•A chip having parallel channels with uniform flow rates was designed for separations.•Exhausting preparation of chip with trial and error could be avoided by simulation.

In this work the design of a microchannel system applied for multiple chromatographic separations was optimized. The pressure and velocity distribution in a complex microchip was simulated by COMSOL Multiphysics software in order to find the optimized geometry and pressure conditions. The experimental results of the flow rates in the twelve parallel channels of the used microchip agreed well with the simulation results. COMSOL simulations were also applied to find adequate channel designs for the equalization of the flow rates in the parallel channels of a chip, which included many junctions of channels and bottlenecks. This approach can greatly expedite the time required for complex geometry based prototype fabrication.