Coupling Contraction-expansion Arrays with Spiral Microchannels to Enhance Microfluidic-Based Particle/Cell Separation

• Published in: International journal of computational fluid dynamics Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 63 - 90
• Main Authors: Shahraki, Zahra Hashemi, Navidbakhsh, Mahdi, Taylor, Robert A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis 02.01.2022; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Arrays; Conservation equations; Contraction expansion array (CEA); Coupling; Dean flow; Flow rates; Flow velocity; inertial forces; Lysis; Microchannels; microfluidic; Microfluidics; Momentum; numerical simulation; particle focusing; Probability theory; Separation; spiral microchannels
• ISSN: 1061-8562; 1029-0257
• DOI: 10.1080/10618562.2022.2053114

In the field of microfluidic inertial-based focusing of suspended particles, no research has been conducted to bring together two of the main directions of research, trapezoid spiral microchannels and contraction-expansion array (CEA)s. This paper addresses that gap by investigating two proposed CEAs (smooth and abrupt) inside a spiral channel compared to a uniform cross-section design at three different flow rates (i.e. 3, 6, and . The conservation equations of mass and momentum with a Lagrangian'-Eulerian (LE) approach are solved in OpenFOAM, using a four-way coupling between the phases. The results indicate that adding smooth transition CEAs to spiral microchannels, at a nominal flow rate , decreases the focusing duration (by about 29%) and the cell lysis probability (by about 52%) while keeping the separation efficiency high (nearly 100%). Overall, this study opens a promising new, integrated direction for passive microfluidic focusing of particles.