Simulation of an integrated microfluidic device for bioparticle wash, separation and concentration

Washing, separation and concentration of bioparticles are key operations for many biological and chemical analyses. In this study, the simulation of an integrated microfluidic device is studied. The proposed device has the capability to wash the bioparticles (transferring the bioparticles from one buffer solution to another), to separate the particles based on their dielectric properties and to concentrate the bioparticles. Washing and concentration of bioparticles are performed by acoustophoresis and the separation is performed by dielectrophoresis. For simulating the flow within the microchannel, a computational fluid dynamics model using COMSOL Multiphysics software is implemented. In order to simulate the particle trajectories under ultrasonic and electric field, point-particle assumption is chosen using MATLAB software. To account for the size variation of the bioparticles, particles with normal size distributions are used in-side the microchannel. The effect of the key design parameters such as flow rate, applied voltage etc. on the performance of the device is discussed. Copyright © 2013 by ASME.