Numerical optimization and inverse study of a microfluidic device for blood plasma separation

Abstract

In this paper, a passive microfluidic device for continuous real time blood plasma separation has been studied and optimized. A numerical model is used to solve both the fluid flow and the particles confined within it. Red blood cells are considered as particles with diameter of 7μm. A parametric study is performed in order to characterize the effect of different parameters on separation and purity efficiency. In this study, four different variables were introduced to design the microfluidic device for blood plasma separation including: the angle between the daughter channels and the main channel, the widths, the diffuse angle and the number of daughter channels. Results show that the separation and purity efficiency have an opposite trend. Since finding the optimal design, where both separation and purity efficiency are desirable, was the goal of this research, an optimization is performed by means of Pattern Search algorithm including all the variables. By means of optimization, it is shown that the performance of device can be improved considerably. Optimal design with separation efficiency of 83% and purity efficiency of 85% is achieved. Moreover, an inverse study has been done to calculate the design variables based on the desired separation and purity efficiency. According to related research, separation and purity efficiency were set to (40%, 53%) and (25%, 100%). Design variables were obtained with less than 1% and 4% error, respectively.