Analytical and Numerical Modelling of Microfluidic Flow into Microneedle for Transdermal Drug Delivery

Abstract

In recent times, microneedle has gained popularity for vaccination in miniaturized drug delivery system. Microneedle possesses more advantages than the conventional hypodermic needles. The microneedle should not be broken and the drug flow should be properly carried out, when the needle is inserted into the tissue for drug delivery. In this paper, the microfluidic flow of the drug epirubicin into the microneedle during transdermal drug delivery is studied. The microneedle based transdermal Drug Delivery System is proposed with an electrochemical micropump. The diaphragm microactuator is simulated to determine the range of pressure in the microfluidic device. Initially, the drug flow into the hollow microneedle for transdermal drug delivery is formulated into an analytical model using the Galerkin technique. Then the numerical analysis is performed using ANSYS by developing the model of a bevel tip hollow microneedle attached to a substrate. The substrate interconnects the reservoir of the drug to the microneedle. The micropump actuation initiates the microfluidic flow of drug into the transdermal region of the human body. The effectiveness of the drug delivery is analysed through various parameters such as pressure, velocity, geometry of the microneedle.