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Influences of microparticle radius and microchannel height on SSAW-based acoustophoretic aggregation.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

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Authors

Dong, Jing 
Liang, Dongfang 
Yang, Xin 
Sun, Chao 

Abstract

The use of acoustic waves for microfluidic aggregation has become widespread in chemistry, biology and medicine. Although numerous experimental and analytical studies have been undertaken to study the acoustophoretic aggregation mechanisms, few studies have been conducted to optimise the device design. This paper presents a numerical investigation of the acoustophoresis of microparticles suspended in compressible liquid. The wall of the rectangular microchannel is made of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and Standing Surface Acoustic Waves (SSAW) are introduced into the channel from the bottom wall. First, the relative amplitude of the acoustic radiation force and the viscous drag force is evaluated for particles of different radii ranging from 0.1μm to 15μm. Only when the particle size is larger than a critical value can the particles accumulate at acoustic pressure nodes (PNs). The efficiency of the particle accumulation depends on the microchannel height, so an extensive parametric study is then undertaken to identify the optimum microchannel height. The optimum height, when normalised by the acoustic wavelength, is found to be between 0.57 and 0.82. These findings provide insights into the design of acoustophoretic devices.

Description

Keywords

Acoustofluidics, Acoustophoresis, Microchannels, Microfluidics, Microparticle aggregation

Journal Title

Ultrasonics

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0041-624X
1874-9968

Volume Title

117

Publisher

Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P020259/1)
The work has been supported by the Cambridge Tier-2 system operated by the University of Cambridge Research Computing Service (http://www.hpc.cam.ac.uk) funded by EPSRC Tier-2 capital grant EP/P020259/1.