Open Access

ARTICLE

Computational Microfluidic Channel for Separation of Escherichia coli from Blood-Cells

Chinnapalli Likith Kumar^1,*, A. Vimala Juliet¹, Bandaru Ramakrishna², Shubhangi Chakraborty¹, Mazin Abed Mohammed³, Kalakanda Alfred Sunny⁴
1 Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, 603203, India
2 Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, 603203, India
3 College of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Anbar, Anbar, Iraq
4 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore, 641114, India
* Corresponding Author: Chinnapalli Likith Kumar. Email:
(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Retrospective Big Data Analytics in Radiological Imaging for Precision Medicine)

Computers, Materials & Continua 2021, 67(2), 1369-1384. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2021.015116

Received 07 November 2020; Accepted 30 November 2020; Issue published 05 February 2021

Abstract

Microfluidic channels play a vital role in separation of analytes of interest such as bacteria and platelet cells, etc., in various biochemical diagnosis procedures including urinary tract infections (UTI) and bloodstream infections. This paper presents the multi physics computational model specifically designed to study the effects of design parameters of a microfluidics channel for the separation of Escherichia coli (E. coli) from various blood constituents including red blood cells (RBC) and platelets. A standard two inlet and a two outlet microchannel of length 805 m with a channel width of 40 m is simulated. The effect of electrode potentials and the effect of electrode placement along the channel length and also the levitation of electrodes from the channel wall are studied to optimize the selective particle separation throughput. Simulated results show the efficient separation of E-coli with a mean diameter 0.68 m is achieved at low voltages (less than 20 V) when electrodes placed near to the micro channel and also noticed that the applied electric potential is inversely proportional to the number of electrodes placed along the microfluidic channel. The computer aided multi physics simulations with multiple governing parameters could be advantage in design optimization of microfluidics channels and support precise bioparticle separation for better diagnosis.

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Keywords

Microfluidics; dielectrophoresis; cell separation; electro kinetic force; platelets; E. coli

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