Mathematical Modelling of the Voltage Required for Separation of Cell-like Particles

Abstract

Microfluidic devices separate the cells by using dielectrophoresis, magnetic, acoustic, or other techniques. This study focuses on a voltage required in a microfluidic device that uses dielectrophoretic force to separate the cell-like particles based on their size difference. Numerical simulation shows that the particles separate above a certain minimum voltage and do not separate above a certain maximum voltage, which defines the particle separation range. This voltage requirement depends on cell and buffer solution parameters. This study uses data-sets generated using numerical simulation by varying these parameters. Detailed analysis of these data-sets gave the significant parameters, which decide the voltage requirement, as the size of the two cell-like particles and viscosity of the buffer solution. A mathematical model is developed using regression analysis, to calculate the voltage requirement, considering particle size ranging between 2µm to 30µm and viscosity ranging from 0.8cp to 4cp. The voltage predicted from the mathematical model is compared with the values obtained from the numerical simulation. The RMS error obtained for the entire data-set is 1.4412%. The mathematical model thus predicts the required voltage with good accuracy and will be helpful in healthcare, which needs frequent screening or testing of samples for early diagnosis of HIV, cancer, malaria, and many such applications.