Proceedings of the ASME 2013 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition

IMECE2013
November 15-21, 2013, San Diego, California, USA

IMECE2013-63837

CONCURRENT SPATIAL MAPPING OF THE ELASTICITY OF HETEROGENEOUS SOFT

MATERIALS VIA A POLYMER-BASED MICROFLUIDIC DEVICE: A PRELIMINARY STUDY
Wenting Gu, Peng Cheng, Zhili Hao
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA USA 23529-0247

ABSTRACT heterogeneity [3] and the tissue engineering process in

This paper presents a preliminary study on achieving
concurrent spatial mapping of the spatially-varying elasticity
of heterogeneous soft materials via a polymer-based
microfluidic device. Comprised of a single compliant polymer
rectangular microstructure and a set of electrolyte-enabled
distributed resistive transducers, this device is capable of
detecting continuous distributed loads. Through pressing a
specimen against the device by a rigid probe with precisely-
controlled displacements, the spatially-varying elasticity of a
specimen is captured by continuous distributed loads acting on
the device and is further registered as discrete resistance
changes at the locations of the transducers in the device.
Concurrent spatial mapping is conducted on homogeneous and
heterogeneous specimens, and the related data analysis is
performed on the measured results to extract their elasticity.
The obtained results demonstrate the feasibility of concurrent
spatial mapping of the spatially-varying elasticity of
heterogeneous soft materials via this polymer-based
microfluidic device.
1 INTRODUCTION
Measuring the spatially-varying elasticity of heterogeneous
soft materials, such as biological soft tissues and cell-seeded
soft materials, is important for revealing the physiological
process and functionality of native and engineered tissues [1].
Although elastic measurement techniques at the traditional-
scale are well established, they are not suitable for soft
materials exhibiting micro-scale heterogeneity. Particularly, in
tissue health analysis, identifying ill tissue (i.e., lesion and
tumor) and its size from healthy tissue is achieved by
characterizing elasticity difference between ill tissues and
health tissues [2]. Meanwhile, in tissue engineering, local
measurement allows the quantification of cell-to-cell
general, while macroscopic experiments yield a homogenized
response, which miss out the cell-matrix interaction but obtain
the combined behavior of the cells and scaffold.
Nanoindentation techniques based on Atomic Force
Microscope (AFM) have been commonly employed to
measure the elasticity of single cells and cell-matrix
interaction [3]. Recently, AFM-based nanoindentation
techniques have been applied to examine the spatially-varying
elasticity of heterogeneous tissues by sequentially mapping
out its elasticity across a specimen [4, 5]. However, sequential
spatial mapping suffers inefficiency in data acquisition and
operation complexity. Moreover, the obtained results may not
resemble the physiological function of tissues in vivo, due to
the lack of physiological loading during the measurement.
Meanwhile, MEMS-based sensor arrays have been developed
for such purpose [6, 7]. However, these sensor arrays involve
fabrication complexity and result in high costs.
Built upon a polymer-based microfluidic device, this work
is aimed to establish a new experimental method for achieving
such measurement with high efficiency and low cost, while
without excluding the internal interaction inside a specimen
[5].Our previous work on this polymer-based microfluidic
device has demonstrated its capability of detecting continuous
distributed loads [8]. This paper focuses upon one application
of the device: concurrently mapping out the spatially-varying
elasticity of a soft material with heterogeneity at the micro-
scale. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Sec. 2
describes the design and fabrication of the polymer-based
microfluidic device. Sec. 3 presents the rationale and
experimental method of concurrent spatial mapping via this
device. While Sec. 4 presents performance characterization of
the device, Sec. 5 provides the measurement results of
specimens and the associated data analysis, and further
discusses the implications of the obtained results.

1 Copyright 2013 by ASME

2 A POLYMER-BASED MICROFLUIDIC DEVICE In the experiment for characterizing the performance of the
device, a rigid probe is employed to apply precisely-controlled
Fig. 1(a) illustrates the configuration of the polymer-based
displacements to exert continuous loads on the device. Thus,
microfluidic device. It is comprised of a polymer rectangular
the performance of the device is analyzed with an applied
microstructure and a set of electrolyte-enabled transducers
displacement as the input. The deflection of the microstructure
distributed along the microstructure length. Together with the
is treated as identical to the applied displacement. Therefore,
electrode pairs, one body of electrolyte in the microchannel
in response to an applied displacement, z, the overall load, Fd,
functions as five discrete resistive transducers [9]. Each
of the microstructure is calculated as:
transducer can record the resistance of portion of electrolyte
between the two opposing electrodes across the microchannel F = K z (1)
d d
width. Two reservoirs at the ends of the microchannel are
utilized to fill the microchannel with an electrolyte and where Kd is the overall stiffness of the microstructure. The
provide a conduit for electrolyte, as an incompressible liquid, microstructure can be divided as five identical segments with
in the microchannel to flow in/out during the device operation. the locations of the electrode pairs as their centers. It is further
Thus, adding the reservoirs not only completely confines assumed that the microstructure has a uniform thickness.
electrolyte within the device, but also allows electrolyte to Then, the stiffness of each segment of the microstructure is
freely flow during the device operation. expressed as:
The working principle of the device is depicted in Figs. kd = 1 K d (2)
1(b) and 1(c), together with the key design parameters. While 5
the microstructure converts continuous distributed loads to One body of electrolyte in the microchannel can be treated
continuous deflections along its length (x-axis), the distributed as five discrete resistive transducers, since an isolation zone
transducers translate the continuous deflections to discrete exists between the neighboring portions of electrolyte for
resistance changes at their locations. The key design resistive transduction [8]. The deflection of the microstructure
parameters and their values of the device are summarized in causes a geometrical change in a transducer. Consequently,
Table 1. the resistance change of a transducer is related to the
Electrodes microstructure deflection at its location by:
Polymer
microstructure
Reservoir 1
Rd = Rd 0 1 (3)
Pyrex slide 1 z
h
E
Microchannel filled with
electrolyte where is a constant associated with the geometry of a
(a) transducer and Rd0 denotes the initial resistance of a transducer
wP prior to an applied displacement [10]:
wE E wE
R0 = (4)
hP hE d E 2
R It needs to be emphasized that the applied displacement gives
hE rise to two independent outputs: overall load from the
z
microstructure and the resistance changes from the
o y
transducers.
(b)
Owing to quite a few advantages, polydimethylsiloxane
Distributed loads: q(x) (PDMS) is chosen as the structural material. A standard
fabrication process for PDMS-based microfluidic devices is
employed to fabricate this device, which has been detailed
previously [8]. For completeness, the fabrication process is
z R1 R3 R5
R2 R4 briefly described as follows. Au/Cr electrodes are deposited
o and patterned on a Pyrex slide. An SU8 mold is made on
x
dE another Pyrex slide for the microstructure and two reservoirs.
A mixture of 10:1 ratio of PDMS elastomer to curing agent
L
(c) (Sylgard 184kit, Dow Corning Corp.) is poured over the SU8
mold, cured and then peeled off. After treated with oxygen
Pyrex Polymer Metal Electrolyte plasma, the microstructure and the Pyrex slide patterned with
Fig. 1: A polymer-based microfluidic device for detecting metal electrodes are aligned and bonded together. 1-Ethyl-3-
continuous distributed loads (a) schematic (b) working methylimidazolium dicyanamide electrolyte (EMIDCA) is
principle: side-view (y-z plane) (c) working principle: side
view (x-z plane)

2 Copyright 2013 by ASME

chosen as the electrolyte for filling the fabricated device, because it is free of evaporation and exhibits both a low
Table 1 Key design parameters and their values of the polymer-based microfluidic device for detecting continuous distributed loads
Design parameter Value Symbol
Microchannel width 1mm wE
Microchannel height 80m hE
Transducer spacing or spatial resolution 1.5mm dE
Width of each sidewall of the microstructure 3.5mm wP
Thickness of the top thin-plate of the microstructure 1mm hP

A load cell is incorporated into this experimental method

viscosity and a low electrical resistivity. Fig. 2 shows a picture
to obtain the overall load resulting from the applied
of the fabricated device filled with colored liquid for
displacement. Here, it is the spatially-varying stiffness of a
illustrating the microchannel and reservoirs, with the
specimen that is measured, rather than the elasticity itself.
transducers being labeled with numbers. It is worth
Then, with the known dimension of a specimen, the spatially-
mentioning that the microchannel height is much smaller than
varying elasticity can be extracted from the obtained spatially-
the thickness of the rectangular top plate of the microstructure
varying stiffness by resorting to either theoretical formulas or
(hE << hP). finite element analysis (FEA).
The experimental setup for implementing concurrent
15mm spatial mapping on a specimen is shown in Fig. 4. A device is
8mm fixed on an optical table and a specimen is placed on the
1mm device. Mounted on a micropositioner, probe holders are
1.5mm
utilized to assemble a load cell and a rigid probe together. The
micropositioner allows moving the probe along the z-axis to
exert precisely-controlled displacements on a specimen.
1 2 3 4 5
Fig 2: Picture of a fabricated polymer-based microfluidic Load Cell
device with its transducers being labeled Micropositioner
Specimen Probe
3 CONCURRENT SPATIAL MAPPING
vac() i() Electronics
Fig. 3 depicts the rationale for concurrent spatial mapping Function
of the elasticity of a heterogeneous specimen via the polymer- Generator Vout
based microfluidic device. A heterogeneous specimen is
placed on the device and a rigid probe is employed to apply a DAQ
Optical table
precisely-controlled displacement to press the specimen
against the device. Consequently, the spatially-varying R
elasticity of the specimen translates to continuous distributed (a)
loads, which can be detected by the device.

Input: applied displacement (z)

Micropositioner
Probe holder
Rigid probe
Specimen Output:
Overall load Load cell
Continuous distributed loads: q(x) Probe

Continuous deflection: zd(x)

Output: R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
Fig. 3: Rationale for concurrent spatial mapping of the
spatially-varying elasticity of a specimen
(b)
Fig. 4: Experimental setup for concurrent spatial mapping of
the spatially-varying elasticity of a specimen (a) schematic (b)
picture
The load cell is utilized to record the overall load acting on
a specimen and the device, in response to an applied
displacement. To record the resistance changes of the device, a

3 Copyright 2013 by ASME

function generator applies an AC voltage to the electrodes on
one side of the device, while the electrodes on the other side of
the device output AC sense currents. Custom electronics
implemented on a PCB convert the AC sense currents to DC
voltage outputs, which feed into a DAQ board and are
recorded by custom LabVIEW programs. The resistance, R, of
a transducer is related to the DC voltage output, Vout, from the
electronics by the following expression:
vPP RF
R( z ) = (5)
2 2Vout ( z )
where vPP is the peak-to-peak value of the AC voltage signal,
RF is the feedback resistance of the electronics. Evidently, the
resistance of a transducer is a function of the applied
displacement, z, of a probe.
where Rd0 denotes the initial resistance of a transducer after
the probe is aligned above the device but prior to
characterization. As shown in Fig. 6, the measured resistance
changes are plotted against the applied displacement according
to the above equation. The slopes of these lines represent the
constants, /hE, associated with the transducers, which are
summarized in Table 1. Note that the difference in this
constant among the transducers accounts for the difference in
initial resistance and the misalignment between the probe and
the device.
1
Rd / Rd 0 + 1
1
0.9

4 DEVICE CHARACTERIZATION 0.8

Prior to measuring a specimen with the device, the 0.7

performance of the device is characterized. Except without a 1st
0.6
specimen, the same experimental setup is used to characterize 2nd
the device performance. Fig. 5 shows the measured resistance 0.5 3rd
changes as a function of the applied displacement, z, together 4th y = -0.00112x + 0.99754
with the overall load, Fd, recorded by the load cell. The slope 0.4 5th
of the load-displacement (Fd-z) relation gives rise to the 0 100 200 300 400 500
overall stiffness, Kd=2.37mN/m of the device. From the z (m)
relative resistance change magnitudes of the transducers, tilt Fig. 6: Extracting constants associated with the transducers of
misalignment exists between the probe and the device, with the device from the measured Rd-z relation (For clarity, only
the probe slightly tilted towards the 5th transducer. Meanwhile, the fitting linear function for the 3rd transducer is shown.)
the probe is horizontally shifted towards the 1st transducer,
because the 5th transducer exhibits smaller resistance change 5 MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF SPECIMENS
than the 4th transducer. Also, an offset misalignment exists
between them, as evidenced by the non-zero value of the 5.1 Sample preparation
overall load in the absence of an applied displacement. Table 2 To demonstrate the feasibility of achieving concurrent
summarizes the initial resistances of the transducers prior to spatial mapping of the spatially-varying elasticity of a
exerting an applied displacement on the device. specimen via this device, two specimens are prepared. Two
Rd ( ) homogeneous PDMS specimens of 10mm6mm2mm are
Fd (N)
6000 1.4 prepared by mixing PDMS elastomer to curing agent with a
1st 2nd 3rd ratio of 10:1. A 1mm-wide void is then cut into one of the two
5000 4th 5th Load 1.2 specimens to introduce heterogeneity.
1
4000 5.2 Homogeneous specimen
y = 0.00237x + 0.03027
0.8
3000 Measurement
0.6
2000 Fig. 7 shows the measured resistance changes, Rs, of the
0.4 homogeneous PDMS specimen as a function of the applied
1000 0.2 displacement, z, together with the recorded overall load, Fs.
After the probe is aligned above the specimen and the device
0 0 prior to measurement, the initial resistances, Rs0, of the device
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 are measured and included in Table 3.
z (m)
Fig. 5: Measured resistance changes and overall load as a Data Analysis
function of the applied displacement of the device To obtain the spatially-varying stiffness of a specimen from
the measured resistance changes and overall load, the data
According to Eq. (3), the resistance change is associated analysis is conducted according to the following procedure.
with the applied displacement by:
1 z
= 1 (6)
Rd / Rd 0 + 1 hE

4 Copyright 2013 by ASME

 Table 2 Characterized performance parameters of the polymer-based microfluidic device
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Symbol Unit
Initial resistance 3060 3260 3290 3460 3470 R0d
Coefficient 0.00086 0.00097 0.00112 0.00121 0.00130 /hE 1/m
Overall stiffness of the device 2.37 Kd mN/m

Table 3 Characterized performance parameters of the device under a homogeneous PDMS specimen
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Symbol
Initial resistance 3839 4178 4277 4475 4488 R0s ()
Overall stiffness of the device 3.52 Kd
Overall stiffness of the device and specimen 1.88 Keq

Rs ( ) Fs (N) zd (m)
2000 1 250
1st y = 0.00188x + 0.02286 1st
2nd 2nd
1600 3rd 0.8 200 3rd
4th 4th
5th 5th
1200 Load 0.6
150 Average
800 0.4
100
400 0.2
50
0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0
z (m) 0 200 400 600
Fig. 7: Measured resistance changes and overall load as a z (m)
function of the applied displacement of a homogeneous PDMS Fig. 8: Average deflection and the deflections of the
specimen of 10mm6mm2mm using the device microstructure at the locations of the transducers as a function
of the applied displacement of a homogeneous PDMS
Step 1: Overall equivalent stiffness, Keq, of the device and the specimen
specimen
Consequently, the overall load can be plotted as a function
The slope of the measured load-displacement (Fs-z) of the deflections of the microstructure (Fs-zd relation), as
relation in Fig. 7 gives rise to the overall equivalent stiffness shown in Fig. 9. The slope of the overall load versus the
of the device and the specimen: Keq=1.88mN/m. average deflection of the microstructure (Fs-zd-ave relation)
gives rise to the overall stiffness of the device,
Step 2: Overall stiffness, Kd, and deflection, zd, of the
microstructure Kd=3.52mN/m. The slopes of the Fs-zd relations in the figure
represent the individual stiffness at the locations of the
Based on Eq. (3), the deflection, zd, of the microstructure transducers. The similarity of the slopes among the
can be extracted from the measured resistance changes, Rs, transducers indicates identical individual stiffness of the
by: microstructure above the transducers. As expected, the overall
stiffness, Kd, of the device under a specimen is different from
1 that of the device (Kd=2.37mN/m) directly in contact with a
zd = 1 / (7)
Rs / Rs 0 + 1 hE probe, as measured in Sec. 4, since the load configuration on
where Rs0 denotes the initial resistance of a transducer after the the device is changed by the insertion of a specimen.
probe is aligned above the specimen and the device prior to Step 3: Overall stiffness, Ks, of the specimen
measurement, as summarized in Table 2; the constant, /hE, is
Since the device and the specimen are connected in series
obtained from the device characterization. The average
along the direction of the applied displacement, the overall
deflection of the microstructure can be obtained by averaging
stiffness of the specimen is related to the overall equivalent
the deflections at the locations of the transducers. The
stiffness of the device and the specimen by:
deflections of the microstructure are plotted as a function of
the applied displacement in Fig. 8. 1 1 1
= (8)
K s Keq Kd '

5 Copyright 2013 by ASME

where Ks denote the overall stiffness of the specimen. Thus, location of the ith transducer is related to its average elastic
the overall stiffness of the specimen is Ks=4.04mN/m. modulus by:
5
Fs (m)
0.9 Es _ ave = K s i (13)
1st 5 i =1
2nd
0.8 3rd where Ks-i is the slope of the overall load versus the deflection
4th of the specimen at the location of the ith transducer:
0.7 5th
Average Fs F
0.6 K s i = = s (14)
ztrue zd i zs i
0.5
y = 0.00352x + 0.21329 Fig. 10 plots the overall load as a function of the deflections of
0.4 the specimen at the locations of the transducers and the slopes
represent the Ks-i values. Accordingly, the constant is
0.3 estimated to be =123/m.
0 50 100 150 200
zd (m) The obtained individual stiffness and the spatially-varying
Fig. 9: Measured overall load as a function of the average elastic modulus of the specimen are summarized in Table 4.
deflection and the deflections of the micrsotructure at the The varying elastic modulus of the specimen is very close to
locations of the transducer of a homegeneous PDMS specimen the average value of the specimen. Since the specimen is
homogeneous, the variation in the measured spatially-varying
Step 4: Average elastic modulus, Es-ave of the specimen moduli is believed to be caused by the misalignment between
the probe, the specimen and the device and the experimental
For simplicity, a rather simplified theoretical model is noise.
utilized to convert the overall stiffness of the specimen to its
average elastic modulus, Es-ave: Fs (m)
1 1st
h 2nd
Esave = ks s (9)
As 0.8 3rd
4th
where the cross-section area, As, of the specimen used is 0.6 5th
1.6mm10mm to account for the circular probe of 0.796mm in
radius and the 1mm-wide microchannel. The thickness of the 0.4
specimen is hs=2mm. Therefore, the average elastic modulus
is estimated to be Es-ave =505kPa.
0.2
Step 5: Spatially-varying elastic modulus, Es-i of the specimen
Based on the overall stiffness of the specimen, the average 0
deflection of the specimen is calculated as: 0 50 100 150 200 250
zs (m)
Fs K d zd ave Fig. 10: Overall load as a function of the deflections of the
zs ave = = (10)
Ks Ks homogeneous PDMS specimen at the locations of the
transducers
Consequently, the true applied displacement of the probe is
calculated as: 5.3 Heterogeneous specimen
ztrue = zsave + zd ave (11) Measurement

Here, the true displacement removes the initial offset
misalignment between a specimen and the probe. Then, the
deflection of the specimen at the location of the ith transducer
is calculated as:
zs i = ztrue zd i (12)
where zd-i denotes the deflection of the microstructure at the
location of the ith transducer.
Since the stiffness of portion of a specimen above the ith
transducer is proportional to the elastic modulus of that
portion, ks-i Es-i, the elastic modulus of a specimen at the
The heterogeneous specimen is placed on the device and
its void is visually aligned above the 3rd transducer, as
illustrated in Fig. 11(a). A step displacement of 1mm at speed
of 3mm/s is applied to the specimen. The resistance changes
and the readout of the load cell are recorded as a function of
time and illustrated in Fig. 11(b). Similarly, the initial
resistances of the device are measured again and summarized
in Table 5, after the probe is aligned above the specimen prior
to measurement.

6 Copyright 2013 by ASME

Table 4 Individual stiffness and spatially-varying elastic modulus of a homogeneous PDMS specimen at the locations of the five
transducers with =123/m
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Symbol
Stiffness 4.33 4.18 4.04 4.09 3.83 ks-i (mN/m)
Elastic modulus 534 516 498 505 472 Es-i (kPa)
Average elastic modulus 505 Es-ave (kPa)

Table 5 Characterized performance parameters of the device under a heterogeneous PDMS specimen
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Symbol
Initial resistance 2644 2776 2862 2882 2860 Rs0 ()
Maximum overload 1.4839N Fs-max (N)
Overall stiffness of the device 6.51mN/m Kd
Overall stiffness of the device and specimen 1.48mN/m Keq

Fs (t ) = Kd zd ave (t ) (16)
Rigid Probe
Void
PDMS Void 1mm Fig. 12 shows the deflection of the microstructure at the
locations of the transducers and its average deflection as a
function of time. The calculated overall load acting on the
1 2 3 4 5 specimen is also included in the figure.
(a) For simplicity, the average elastic modulus of the specimen
Rs ( ) Load cell (N) is calculated as:
2000 2
Fs (t ) h
Es ave (t ) = s (17)
1500 1.5 z zd ave (t ) As
where the applied step displacement is z=1mm.
1000 1
zd (m) Fs (N)
500 1st 2nd 0.5 350 1.6
3rd 4th
5th Load cell 300 1.4
0 0
250 1.2
5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8
-500 -0.5 200 1st 1
t (s) 2nd
150 3rd 0.8
(b) 4th
Fig. 11: (a) Alignment schematic and picture (b) measured 100 0.6
5th
resistance changes and recorded output of the load cell as a 50 Average 0.4
function of time for the heterogeneous PDMS specimen with Load
0 0.2
its void aligned above the 3rd transducer
-50 5 6 7 8 0
Data analysis -100 -0.2
t (s)
According to Eq. (7), the deflections of the microstructure Fig. 12: Deflections of the microstructure at the locations of
at the locations of the transducers and its average deflection the five transducers, its average deflection and the overall load
are plotted as a function of time. Since the load cell is a piezo- as a function of time for a heterogeneous PDMS specimen
type, only its maximum readout, Fs-max, is utilized to obtain the
overall stiffness of the microstructure by:
The following relations hold for the individual stiffness of
Fs max a specimen and the microstructure, respectively, at the
Kd = (15) locations of the transducers:
max( zd ave )
kd
where max(zd-ave) denotes the maximum average deflection of k s ( z zd ) = k d zd and ks = Es (16)
the microstructure. Consequently, the overall load z / zd 1
corresponding to the applied step displacement is a function of
Thus, the average elastic modulus is related to the elastic
time:
modulus at the five locations are:

7 Copyright 2013 by ASME

 1 5 (t )
Es i (t ) = (17)
5 i =1 z / zd i (t ) 1
The calculated average elastic modulus and the spatially-
varying elastic modulus of the heterogeneous PDMS specimen
as a function of time are illustrated in Fig. 13.
Es (Pa)
400000
300000
200000
1st 2nd
100000 3rd 4th
5th Average
0 the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1265785.
5.6 6.1 6.6 7.1 7.6
-100000
t (s)
Fig. 13: Average elastic modulus and the spatially-varying
elastic modulus of a heterogeneous PDMS specimen
5.4 Discussion
The obtained elastic modulus of the homogeneous PDMS
specimen is lower than that reported in [11] but higher than
that reported in [12]. Evidently, a coefficient could be added
to the simplified formula, Eq. (9), to account for the circular-
shape probe and partial specimen being pressed. The spatially-
varying elastic modulus of the homogeneous specimen is
obtained by extracting the individual stiffness from the
measured Rs-z and Fs-z relations (or slopes) of many data
points. Thus, part of the offset misalignment is believed to be
alleviated by these slopes. In contrast, the spatially-varying
elastic modulus of the heterogeneous specimen is obtained by
resorting to the Rs-z and Fs-z relations of one data point at a
given time. Therefore, the errors from the offset misalignment
in the obtained elastic modulus of the heterogeneous specimen
are significant, as evidenced by the obtained elastic modulus
varying with time during the ramp-up period for reaching the
final displacement.
It is worth mentioning that the device used for measuring
the homogeneous specimen is the same as the one
characterized in Sec. 3, while the device used for measuring
the heterogeneous specimen is different, simply because the
measurement of the two specimens were conducted at
different times. Nevertheless, the measured results still
demonstrate the feasibility of achieving current spatial
mapping of the spatially-varying elasticity of a heterogeneous
soft material via this device. Apparently, the experimental
setup needs to be improved for alleviating misalignment and
reducing noise.
6 CONCLUSION
In this paper, a novel experimental method, namely,
concurrent spatial mapping, for concurrently mapping out the
spatially-varying elasticity of heterogeneous soft materials is
8 Copyright 2013 by ASME
presented. This method is built upon a polymer-based
microfluidic device, which is capable of detecting continuous
distributed loads. The rationale and the experimental method
for concurrent spatial mapping are described in details. This
method is implemented on homogeneous and heterogeneous
PDMS specimens. The associated data analysis is performed
on the measured results for extracting the spatially-varying
elasticity at the locations of the transducers. Despite
misalignment issues and experimental noise, the obtained
results on the two specimens demonstrate the feasibility of
achieving concurrent spatial mapping of the spatially-varying
elasticity of heterogeneous soft materials via this polymer-
based microfluidic device.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support from
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