Irreversibility and pinching in deterministic particle separation

Mingxiang Luo; Francis Sweeney; Sumedh R. Risbud; German Drazer; Joelle Frechette

doi:10.1063/1.3617425

Irreversibility and pinching in deterministic particle separation

Mingxiang Luo, Francis Sweeney, Sumedh R. Risbud, German Drazer, Joelle Frechette

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13 Scopus citations

Abstract

We investigate the settling of spherical particles through a pinching gap created by a cylindrical obstacle and a vertical wall. These macroscopic experiments capture the essence of pinched-flow-fractionation in microfluidics and highlight its deterministic nature. In the absence of pinching, we observe asymmetric trajectories consistent with a hard-core model of particle-obstacle repulsion that leads to separative lateral displacement. Then, we show that pinching promotes the onset of these short-range repulsion forces, amplifying the relative separation in the outgoing trajectory of different-size particles. Inertia effects, however, tend to reduce such relative separation and lead to a more complex behavior.

Original language	American English
Article number	064102
Journal	Applied Physics Letters
Volume	99
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3617425
State	Published - Aug 8 2011
Externally published	Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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title = "Irreversibility and pinching in deterministic particle separation",

abstract = "We investigate the settling of spherical particles through a pinching gap created by a cylindrical obstacle and a vertical wall. These macroscopic experiments capture the essence of pinched-flow-fractionation in microfluidics and highlight its deterministic nature. In the absence of pinching, we observe asymmetric trajectories consistent with a hard-core model of particle-obstacle repulsion that leads to separative lateral displacement. Then, we show that pinching promotes the onset of these short-range repulsion forces, amplifying the relative separation in the outgoing trajectory of different-size particles. Inertia effects, however, tend to reduce such relative separation and lead to a more complex behavior.",

author = "Mingxiang Luo and Francis Sweeney and Risbud, {Sumedh R.} and German Drazer and Joelle Frechette",

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AU - Luo, Mingxiang

AU - Sweeney, Francis

AU - Risbud, Sumedh R.

AU - Drazer, German

AU - Frechette, Joelle

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AB - We investigate the settling of spherical particles through a pinching gap created by a cylindrical obstacle and a vertical wall. These macroscopic experiments capture the essence of pinched-flow-fractionation in microfluidics and highlight its deterministic nature. In the absence of pinching, we observe asymmetric trajectories consistent with a hard-core model of particle-obstacle repulsion that leads to separative lateral displacement. Then, we show that pinching promotes the onset of these short-range repulsion forces, amplifying the relative separation in the outgoing trajectory of different-size particles. Inertia effects, however, tend to reduce such relative separation and lead to a more complex behavior.

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Irreversibility and pinching in deterministic particle separation

Abstract

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