Structure optimization of microvascular scaffolds

Abstract

In this research, a systematic method for the design of a usable microvascular network based on the commercial software FEMLAB is proposed. The design principle comes out to be that the usable network should made up of multi branches with no more than two vertical nodes in individual branch. A special mask was designed to process the microvessel network for experimental verification of velocity uniformity. Accordingly, a simple lithograph approach, in which the PMMA polymer was selected as the substrate, the negative photoresist JSR was employed to form the microchannel structure, was implemented to fabricate the network. Experimental results verified the uniformity of the velocity profile in the microvessel network.