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CFD analysis and experimental validation of magnetic droplet generation and deflection across multilaminar flow streams

Gómez-Pastora, J.; Karampelas, I. H.; Alorabi, A. Q.; Tarn, M. D.; Bringas, E.; Iles, A.; Paunov, V. N.; Pamme, N.; Furlani, E. P.; Ortiz, I.

Authors

J. Gómez-Pastora

I. H. Karampelas

A. Q. Alorabi

M. D. Tarn

E. Bringas

A. Iles

V. N. Paunov

N. Pamme

E. P. Furlani

I. Ortiz



Abstract

© 2018 OOSV. All rights reserved. The use of droplet-based microfluidic systems has increased in the last decade due to the advantages these systems present such as compatibility with many chemical and biological reagents, capability of performing a variety of "digital fluidic" operations that can be rendered programmable and reconfigurable, decreased reaction times and large interfacial areas, repeatability of operations etc. However, with the maturity of this platform technology, sophisticated and delicate control of droplet generation and manipulation is needed to address increasingly complex applications. Magnetic separation has proven a useful and elegant method for manipulating magnetic materials in microfluidic devices. In this work, we present a CFD model to study the continuous processing of droplets by deflecting ferrofluid-based templates through multilaminar flow streams. We introduce different chip designs and an optimization study for the generation and manipulation of droplets by applying magnetic fields generated by a permanent magnet. The numerical method includes the integration of magnetic and fluidic computational models that accurately describe the droplet generation and motion under different magnetic field and flow conditions. The CFD is performed using the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method as implemented in the commercial flow solver FLOW-3D. The flow solver was linked to a FORTRAN subroutine that calculates the magnetic field due to the magnet and the corresponding magnetic force exerted on the droplets. The impact of different process variables and parameters - flow rates, magnet location and chip design - on both droplet size and trajectory, is quantified. Finally, experimental validation of the model is carried out with oil-based ferrofluid droplets and ink aqueous solutions. Theoretical and experimental results are accordingly compared and discussed. Due to the unique advantages of integrating magnetic materials within droplet microfluidics, this technology has the potential to provide novel solutions to different biomedical engineering challenges for advanced diagnostics and therapeutics.

Citation

Gómez-Pastora, J., Karampelas, I. H., Alorabi, A. Q., Tarn, M. D., Bringas, E., Iles, A., …Ortiz, I. (2018). CFD analysis and experimental validation of magnetic droplet generation and deflection across multilaminar flow streams. In Biotech, biomaterials and biomedical: TechConnect briefs 2018 (182-185)

Conference Name TechConnect Briefs 2018 - Advanced Materials
Start Date Jun 17, 2018
Acceptance Date May 13, 2018
Online Publication Date May 13, 2018
Publication Date May 13, 2018
Deposit Date Jun 14, 2019
Publisher TechConnect
Volume 3
Pages 182-185
Series Title TechConnect Briefs
Series Number 3
Book Title Biotech, biomaterials and biomedical: TechConnect briefs 2018
ISBN 9780998878249
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/968984
Publisher URL https://briefs.techconnect.org/papers/cfd-analysis-and-experimental-validation-of-magnetic-droplet-generation-and-deflection-across-multilaminar-flow-streams/