Seminar - Particle focusing in microfluidic devices
School of Mathematics and Statistics Research Seminar
Speaker: Dr Brendan Harding
Time:
Tuesday 18th February 2020 at 04:00 PM -
05:00 PM
Location:
Cotton Club,
Cotton 350
Groups:
"Mathematics"
"Statistics and Operations Research"
Abstract
Particles suspended in flow through small pipes are known to migrate across streamlines of the fluid flow due to a phenomena known as inertial lift. This effect causes the particles to focus towards specific locations within the cross-section. This is exploited in the field of microfluidics for a range of applications that utilise particle focusing and/or separation, one such example being the separation of circulating tumour cells. In this talk I will discuss some of the modelling, computation and analysis I have done on particle migration in curved microfluidic ducts. The secondary vortices that develop in curved duct flow adds significant complexity to the problem. Using a clever decomposition of the flow we have made significant progress in understanding how the effects of inertial lift and secondary vortices interact to produce a wide range of particle dynamics. I will review some of the more interesting results from this research and outline the directions I hope to take this work going forwards.