Inertial focusing of spherical particles: The effects of rotational motion
Inertial migration in microfluidic channels enables label-free sorting of particles and cells, yet the role of particle rotation has remained unclear. Using large-scale simulations, we show that rotation dramatically alters particle focusing positions in both circular and square ducts. We find that rotation induces a substantial lateral lift force, a simple phenomenological explanation extending existing theories is presented, that agrees well with our findings. Our findings suggest new design strategies for rotation-controlled particle sorting in microfluidic devices.
Authors
- Athena Economides (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2340-6364)
- Dmitry Alexeev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6425-2181)
- Petros Koumoutsakos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8337-2122)
- Mehmet Toner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3647-3665)
- Lucas Amoudruz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2688-5949)
- Sergey Litvinov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9152-4835)
Institutions
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Harvard University Press (US)
- Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Fluids
- Published
- 2025-05-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevfluids.10.054202
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Microfluidic and Bio-sensing Technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.67
Funders
- Centro Svizzero di Calcolo Scientifico
- FAS Division of Science, Harvard University