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Inertia-Induced Breakdown of Acoustic Sorting Efficiency at High Flow Rates

Undvall, Eva LU ; Garofalo, Fabio LU ; Procopio, Giuseppe ; Qiu, Wei LU orcid ; Lenshof, Andreas LU ; Laurell, Thomas LU and Baasch, Thierry LU (2022) In Physical Review Applied 17(3).
Abstract

The clinical utility of microfluidic techniques is often hampered by an unsatisfying sample throughput. Here, the effect of inertial forces on acoustofluidic particle sorting at high sample throughputs is investigated experimentally and theoretically. Polystyrene particles are acoustically prefocused to obtain precise trajectories. At increased flow rates it is observed that the particle stream is displaced towards the channel center, and above specific flow settings the particles spill over into the center outlet. This effect, coined the spillover effect, illustrates the complex interplay of viscous and inertial forces inside the microchannel. The effect is due to increased bending of the separatrices at the inlet and outlets and not... (More)

The clinical utility of microfluidic techniques is often hampered by an unsatisfying sample throughput. Here, the effect of inertial forces on acoustofluidic particle sorting at high sample throughputs is investigated experimentally and theoretically. Polystyrene particles are acoustically prefocused to obtain precise trajectories. At increased flow rates it is observed that the particle stream is displaced towards the channel center, and above specific flow settings the particles spill over into the center outlet. This effect, coined the spillover effect, illustrates the complex interplay of viscous and inertial forces inside the microchannel. The effect is due to increased bending of the separatrices at the inlet and outlets and not due to the wall-lift force. The impact of the spillover effect on the separation of two different-sized particles is subsequently studied. Efficient sorting is done for subcritical splitting ratios and flow rates, but for close to critical settings or beyond, there is a breakdown of the acoustofluidic separation.

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author
; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Physical Review Applied
volume
17
issue
3
article number
034014
pages
14 pages
publisher
American Physical Society
external identifiers
  • scopus:85126648999
ISSN
2331-7019
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevApplied.17.034014
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
ecb00eda-c26e-4369-be8a-038311c78c94
date added to LUP
2022-02-08 19:48:03
date last changed
2024-05-17 14:21:17
@article{ecb00eda-c26e-4369-be8a-038311c78c94,
  abstract     = {{<p>The clinical utility of microfluidic techniques is often hampered by an unsatisfying sample throughput. Here, the effect of inertial forces on acoustofluidic particle sorting at high sample throughputs is investigated experimentally and theoretically. Polystyrene particles are acoustically prefocused to obtain precise trajectories. At increased flow rates it is observed that the particle stream is displaced towards the channel center, and above specific flow settings the particles spill over into the center outlet. This effect, coined the spillover effect, illustrates the complex interplay of viscous and inertial forces inside the microchannel. The effect is due to increased bending of the separatrices at the inlet and outlets and not due to the wall-lift force. The impact of the spillover effect on the separation of two different-sized particles is subsequently studied. Efficient sorting is done for subcritical splitting ratios and flow rates, but for close to critical settings or beyond, there is a breakdown of the acoustofluidic separation. </p>}},
  author       = {{Undvall, Eva and Garofalo, Fabio and Procopio, Giuseppe and Qiu, Wei and Lenshof, Andreas and Laurell, Thomas and Baasch, Thierry}},
  issn         = {{2331-7019}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  publisher    = {{American Physical Society}},
  series       = {{Physical Review Applied}},
  title        = {{Inertia-Induced Breakdown of Acoustic Sorting Efficiency at High Flow Rates}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.17.034014}},
  doi          = {{10.1103/PhysRevApplied.17.034014}},
  volume       = {{17}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}