Figure 1
Experimental setup.
(A) Schematic of the microfluidic device and microscope image (inset, 10× magnification): three different networks were included in the same microdevice, P denotes the parent vessel, B and B’ the daughter branches. Branches denoted as B indicate daughter branches characterized by a total length L = 169 ± 3.2 μm and width W = 10.28 ± 0.3 μm (N = 5). i) Symmetric model (inset, middle) has identical daughter branches B and B’ ii) Dilated model (inset, lower) has one daughter branch B and one modified branch B’ which has same length as B but different width W’ = 13.0 ± 0.2 μm > W (in the horizontal segment) iii) Stretched model (inset, upper) has one daughter branch B and one modified branch B’ with the same width as B but with different length L’ = 253.5 ± 3.1 μm > L (dashed arrows). All models had a common inlet and separate outlets. The average channel height was H = 8.1 ± 0.4 μm in all channels. The parent vessel (P) in all the models had a length of 200 μm and 10.28 ± 0.3 μm width. (B) Schematic of the experimental setup: a large diameter reservoir was connected to the inlet of the microdevice. The driving pressure was regulated by changing the height difference (Δh) between the fluid level in the reservoir and the outlets. The arrow indicates the flow direction.
