Incorporation of axiomatic design theory into design of a microchannel system for uniform and size-controllable microspheres

This paper proposes a design methodology for the conceptual design of microchannel systems by applying axiomatic design theory (ADT). The microchannel system concerned in this paper is for the purpose of preparing uniform microspheres based on the phase separation principle and technique. There are two general design goals for this system: controllability of the size of microspheres and uniformity, or narrow size distribution, of microspheres. The conventional microchannel system designs in literature are found poor according to a particular ADT design characteristic called “coupled design.” This paper proposes a “decoupled design” process which is considered better than a “coupled design” process according to ADT. The paper demonstrates the effectiveness of such a “decoupled design” process with a new microchannel system, based on the simulation of the two performance goals.