Modeling and Analysis of the Droplet Landing Process in Cell Direct-Writing

Cell direct-write, a promising technology for the creation of complex, three-dimensional tissue constructs, has great potential in tissue engineering, biological cytology, high-throughput drug screening and cell sensors. However, it has been found that cell damage due to the mechanical impact during cell direct-write is a possible hurdle for broad applications of fragile cell direct writing. The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of the continuously jetted cell droplets on the hydro-gel coating substrate. In order to avoid the element distortion due to large-scale deformation, a mesh-free Smooth Particle Hydrodynamic method (SPH), is introduced to study the impact-induced cell mechanical loading profile during cell landing, including effective stress, plastic strain, velocity and acceleration, for better understanding and prediction of possible impact-induced cell damage. It is found that three important impact processes, cell-hydrogel, cellcell and cell-substrate impact, may occur during cell landing. It is concluded to decrease impact-induced cell damage, there are an appropriate firing period and jetting velocity.