Song Jinhyeuk, Jang Jaekyeong, Kim Taehoon, Cho Younghak
Department of Mechanical System Design Engineering, Seoul National University of Science & Technology, 232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Republic of Korea.
Department of Mechanical Design and Robot Engineering, Seoul National University of Science & Technology, 232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Republic of Korea.
Micromachines (Basel). 2023 Sep 28;14(10):1863. doi: 10.3390/mi14101863.
In this study, we investigated the particle separation phenomenon in a microchannel with a T-shaped cross-section, a unique design detailed in our previous study. Utilizing a co-flow system within this T-shaped microchannel, we examined two types of flow configuration: one where a Newtonian fluid served as the inner fluid and a viscoelastic fluid as the outer fluid (Newtonian/viscoelastic), and another where both the inner and outer fluids were Newtonian fluids (Newtonian/Newtonian). We introduced a mixture of three differently sized particles into the microchannel through the outer fluid and observed that the co-flow of Newtonian/viscoelastic fluids effectively separated particles based on their size compared with Newtonian/Newtonian fluids. In this context, we evaluated and compared the particle separation efficiency, recovery rate, and enrichment factor across both co-flow configurations. The Newtonian/viscoelastic co-flow system demonstrated a superior efficiency and recovery ratio when compared with the Newtonian/Newtonian system. Additionally, we assessed the influence of the flow rate ratio between the inner and outer fluids on particle separation within each co-flow system. Our results indicated that increasing the flow rate ratio enhanced the separation efficiency, particularly in the Newtonian/viscoelastic co-flow configuration. Consequently, this study substantiates the potential of utilizing a Newtonian/viscoelastic co-flow system in a T-shaped straight microchannel for the simultaneous separation of three differently sized particles.
在本研究中，我们研究了具有T形横截面的微通道中的颗粒分离现象，这是我们之前研究中详细介绍的一种独特设计。利用该T形微通道内的共流系统，我们研究了两种流动配置：一种是牛顿流体作为内流体，粘弹性流体作为外流体（牛顿流体/粘弹性流体），另一种是内、外流体均为牛顿流体（牛顿流体/牛顿流体）。我们通过外流体将三种不同尺寸的颗粒混合物引入微通道，并观察到与牛顿流体/牛顿流体相比，牛顿流体/粘弹性流体的共流能有效地根据颗粒大小分离颗粒。在此背景下，我们评估并比较了两种共流配置下的颗粒分离效率、回收率和富集因子。与牛顿流体/牛顿流体系统相比，牛顿流体/粘弹性共流系统表现出更高的效率和回收率。此外，我们评估了内、外流体流速比在每个共流系统中对颗粒分离的影响。我们的结果表明，增加流速比可提高分离效率，特别是在牛顿流体/粘弹性共流配置中。因此，本研究证实了在T形直微通道中利用牛顿流体/粘弹性共流系统同时分离三种不同尺寸颗粒的潜力。
