Design of a microchannel system using axiomatic design theory for size-controllable and monodispersed microspheres by enhanced perturbation

This paper proposes a general design methodology for conceptual design of microchannel systems by applying axiomatic design theory (ADT). As an example, this paper takes a microchannel system that is used to produce uniform microspheres based on the phase separation principle. There are two general design goals for this system: controllability of the size of microspheres and uniformity or narrow size distribution of microspheres. It is found that the conventional approach to this example system will result in a so-called "coupled design," which is considered a poor design, according to ADT. This paper demonstrates how to change the coupled design for the example system to a better design called "decoupled design" (according to ADT). The proposed methodology can be applied to all the microchannel systems based on the phase separation principle and, as a matter of fact, can be used to generate many decoupled designs. The effectiveness of such a decoupled design is demonstrated through simulation.