Passive Control of Annealing in Polymerase Chain Reaction Using Phase Changing Materials

Abstract

A transient thermal model and analysis of passive control of annealing process in thermal cycling process to be carried out as part of continuous flow Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is presented. Phase Changing Materials (PCM) are widely used in passive thermal control applications owing to their excellent thermal response during the phase changing process. Thermal system modeling and numerical simulation are performed to elucidate the one-dimensional unsteady sample fluid flow, convective heat transfer in microchannels, and melting of PCM encapsulation in the annealing module of the thermal cycling module. Results are validated with numerical simulations performed for a similar two-dimensional system with enthalpy-porosity method based finite volume solver. Thermal response and heat transfer efficiency of various organic PCMs are compared.