Publication 17-CNA-006
Design of microfluidic channels for magnetic separation of malaria-infected red blood cells
We-Tao Wu
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon
University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
weitaow@andrew.cmu.edu
Andrea Blue Martin
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon
University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Alberto Gandini
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon
University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Nadine Aubry
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Northeastern University
Boston, MA 02115
n.aubry@northeastern.edu
Mehrdad Massoudi
Center for Nonlinear Analysis
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
and
National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL)
U.S. Department of Energy
626 Cochrans Mill Road, P.O. Box 10940
Pittsburgh, PA 15236
massoudi@netl.doe.gov
James F. Antaki
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon
University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
antaki@cmu.edu
Abstract: This study is motivated by the development of a
blood cell filtration device for removal of malaria-infected,
parasitized red blood cells (pRBCs). The blood was modeled
as a multi-component fluid using the computational
fluid dynamics discrete element method (CFD-DEM),
wherein plasma was treated as a Newtonian fluid and the
red blood cells (RBCs) were modeled as soft-sphere solid
particles which move under the influence of drag, collisions
with other RBCs, and a magnetic force. The CFD-DEM
model was first validated by a comparison with experimental
data from Han and Frazier (Lab Chip 6:265-273, 2006)
involving a microfluidic magnetophoretic separator for
paramagnetic deoxygenated blood cells. The computational
model was then applied to a parametric study of a parallelplate
separator having hematocrit of 40 % with 10 % of the
RBCs as pRBCs. Specifically, we investigated the hypothesis
of introducing an upstream constriction to the channel
to divert the magnetic cells within the near-wall layer
where the magnetic force is greatest. Simulations compared
the efficacy of various geometries upon the stratification
efficiency of the pRBCs. For a channel with nominal height
of 100 $\mu $ m, the addition of an upstream constriction of
80 % improved the proportion of pRBCs retained adjacent to the magnetic wall (separation efficiency) by almost twofold,
from 26 to 49 %. Further addition of a downstream
diffuser reduced remixing and hence improved separation
efficiency to 72 %. The constriction introduced a greater
pressure drop (from 17 to 495 Pa), which should be considered
when scaling up this design for a clinical-sized
system. Overall, the advantages of this design include its
ability to accommodate physiological hematocrit and high
throughput, which is critical for clinical implementation as
a blood-filtration system.
Get the paper in its entirety as 17-CNA-006.pdf
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