Abstract:

Mosquito has the ability to penetrate the skin with painless insertion. It has attracted the researchers to mimic the bite and develop a painless microneedle. Mosquito applies axial compressive load along with frequency on fascicle to penetrate the human skin and retract if it senses instability prior to insertion. The mechanism of mosquito bite is studied in this work which is divided into two stages for analysis considering different boundary conditions. The probing behaviour of mosquito is considered as stage I and the process of penetration as stage II. An equivalent mechanical model for stage I is proposed and a mathematical model is developed to understand the instability of fascicle in terms of frequency and magnitude of force applied. The governing equation and associated boundary conditions are simplified into Mathieu equation and regions of dynamic instability are ob-tained through the solution. Results confirm instability of the fascicle during stage I of insertion. The probing behaviour of mosquito is discussed in terms of applied force and vibrating frequency. Horizontal reaction forces exerted by labium on fascicle during buckling improve the stability and enable fascicle to withstand high compressive forces. The analysis and results are utilized to set design guidelines for the development of dynamically stable vibration-assisted microneedle.

Key words: biommimetics, mosquito proboscis, instability analysis, Mathieu equation, microneedle design