CFD simulation of the magnetophoretic separation in a microchannel

The CFD simulation of the separation of labeled biospecies from a native fluid flowing through a planar microchannel, mediated by a magnetic field is presented in this study. The fluid flow, coupled with Eulerian advection-convection concentration equation, is utilized to model the transport of the magnetic biospecies. A moderate-gradient magnetic field caused accumulation of the magnetic labeled species in the vicinity of the higher magnetic field region. The re-distribution of the magnetically labeled species in the region close to the highest magnetic field zone presents a scheme for the focusing or collection of these species from the heterogeneous samples under the simulation conditions. The magnetic-fluidic interactions and interplay between the magnetophoretic mass transfer and molecular diffusion for different throughputs are analyzed. The study found out that the axial magnetic forces, created from a dipole-like magnetic field, is playing a major role in the vortex formation, and this complements the downward vertical force in confining the particles to a small region near the point with the highest magnetic strength. Also, the study predicts that the generated viscous shear stress levels in the interior region of the channel provide a safe transport mechanism for the biological cells in the solution.