Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-19-2018

Publication Title

Physics of Fluids

Department

Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Abstract

This study presents the numerical simulation and optimization of a dielectrophoretic (DEP) bio-separation chip for isolating bioparticles such as circulating tumor cells. The chip consists of an array of slanted electrodes placed on the top and bottom walls of the channel with an angle of 5°, 10°, and 15° with respect to the flow direction. The spatially non-uniform electric field produced by the slanted electrodes applies a DEP force on the particles flowing through the channel. The repulsive DEP forces applied by the top and bottom electrode arrays are balanced in the normal direction (y), causing the particles to flow along the centerline of the channel. However, the lateral component (z) of the DEP force deflects particles in the lateral direction, guiding them toward different outlets based on their size. Numerical simulation of the particle-fluid transport was performed using OpenFOAM, an open-source computational fluid dynamics package. The computational model considers the dominant forces such as the DEP, hydrodynamic, and gravitational forces and simulates the deflection and trajectory of the particles within the microfluidic channel based on their size. Additionally, a parametric study was performed to investigate the effects of voltage, flow rate, number of electrode pairs, cell size, channel height, the angle of electrodes, and the width and spacing of electrodes on the separation process and to optimize the utility of the DEP devices for cell separation

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