Designing ciliated surfaces that regulate deposition of solid particles

Abstract

Using computational modeling, we examine a pressure-driven fluid flow in a microchannel lined with regularly-spaced non-motile elastic cilia. Our simulations reveal that solid, neutrally-buoyant particles moving with the fluid can be effectively directed towards channel walls by synthetic cilia, thereby inducing their rapid deposition. This particle lateral migration takes place due to circulatory secondary flows emerging within a layer of compliant cilia. Our results suggest that synthetic ciliated surfaces could be harnessed for hydrodynamic separation, trapping, and filtration of microscopic biological and synthetic particles in microfluidic devices.