Abstract

• Acoustic particle separation in millimeter scale channel is becoming a useful technology for microfluidics to control micro sized particles or cells. Particle separation methods have widely used in medical, chemical, biological and life science. In this paper, modern method of particle separation focuses on acoustic method. This technology is based on inducing an ultrasonic standing wave inside a millimeter scale channel. Ultrasonic standing wave is generated across a microfluidic channel by piezoelectric transducer integrated in one of the channel wall. This standing wave enables particles to aggregate its pressure node or anti-node lines due to acoustic radiation force. Acoustic radiation force is a function of the density and compressibility of the particles and fluid. In this study, 10 μm particles will be concentrated in water by using ultrasonic standing wave at 2.2 MHz. The objectives of this study are to obtain the fundamental understanding of particle manipulation in millimetre scale rectangular channel at resonance frequency. And then, two-dimensional theoretical model is developed for particle position calculations. The acoustic field numerical models will be constructed using the finite element methods in COMSOL Multiphysics to estimated number of separation lines and acoustic radiation force. The results of this acoustic based COMSOL simulation approach will be compared with the theoretical results.