Regulated Secondary Flow for the Isolation of Particles Using Inertial Microfluidics

This work introduces a model of an inertial microfluidic filtration technology that, for the first time, integrates active and passive components to regulate secondary flow development. Flexible microstructures drive this technology with a novel design, allowing them to be compressed to develop secondary flow vortices for particle capture and then decompressed to their initial state to dissipate the vortices for efficient release of particles. The regulation of secondary flow vortices is computationally demonstrated by first characterizing the material properties of an elastomeric rubber. These material properties are integrated into finite elemental modeling (FEM) software for compression simulations to design a microstructure with a unique cross-sectional geometry. The compressed and decompressed microstructure geometries are evaluated using FEM software to numerically characterize and visualize how the microstructures impact liquid flow distribution. Compared to the state of the art, this technology combines advanced microfluidic principles with a distinct size-based particle capture site that can recover viable Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) at higher efficiencies and throughput.