Created in COMSOL Multiphysics 5.

Red Blood Cell Separation

This Application is licensed under the COMSOL Application License 5.5.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. See www.comsol.com/trademarks.
About Red Blood Cell Separation
Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is a phenomenon in which a force is exerted on a dielectric
particle when it is subjected to a non-uniform electric field. The electric field induces a
polarization in the particles, which are then subject to a DEP force that is proportional to
the gradient of the electric potential.

The DEP force is sensitive to the size, shape, and dielectric properties of the particles. This
allows DEP to be used to separate different kinds of particles. One application of this is in
the field of bioengineering, where DEP can be used to separated different kinds of cells
from a mixture. The example shown here shows how red blood cells can be selectively
filtered from a blood sample in order to isolate red blood cells from platelets. This is useful
as platelets cause blood to clot, which can lead samples contaminated with platelets to be
unsuitable for subsequent testing once a clot has formed.

The DEP filer device has two inlets and two outlets separated by a long channel, as shown
in the graphics window in the figure below. To isolate the red blood cells, a sample of
blood, which contains both red blood cells and platelets, is fed into the filter device via the
upper inlet. A carrier fluid is fed into the lower inlet. The steams from the two inlets mix
together as they pass through a long channel in which they are subjected to a non-uniform
electric field. Because the platelets and red blood cells have different dielectric properties
they each feel a different magnitude of DEP force. The red blood cells, which are larger
than the platelets, feel a larger force and so are deflected more. The two outlets are
arranged such that the top outlet catches undeflected particles and only particles which
have been deflected can exit from the lower outlet. Thus the stream which exists from the
lower outlet is rich in red blood cells. The fraction of cells that are red blood cells in the
lower outlet stream is the metric of success for the filtration process. Fractions above 0.99
are pure enough to prevent unwanted clotting during subsequent testing.

The application has four sections and a graphics window:

• The Patient Blood Characteristics section enables information about the red blood cell
and platelet size and shell thickness to be input. This information can be determined by
taking a blood sample and analyzing the results using microscopy. With the coming
health revolution in the consumer electronics industry, it is likely that this could be done
using portable hardware connected to a smart phone.
• The Testing Parameters section enables the DEP filtration parameters to be specified.
These define the electric field and voltage used to generate the DEP force.

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• The Results section provides dynamic feedback about the success of the filtration process
by reporting the fraction of red blood cells in the lower outlet stream and evaluating if
the filtered stream is sufficiently free of platelets.
• The Computation Time section provides information about the expected time to
compute the solution and the last computed time.
• The graphics window provides graphical feedback of the electric potential, fluid velocity,
and particle trajectories through the filtration device.

Compute Plot results

solutions and create reports Access documentation

Reset
inputs

Specify
inputs

Evaluate
results

Graphical results

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The Model Behind the Application
The model calculates the trajectory of red blood cells and platelets, which are suspended
in the blood sample, as they move through the filtration device by solving the equation of
motion for each set of particles. This equation is given by Newton’s second law as

d m v = F
dt p

where mp and v are the particle mass and velocity, respectively, and F is the total force
experienced by the particle.

The force that acts on particles suspended in a fluid is composed of thee components: drag
force, which is due the resistance of the fluid due to viscosity; the Brownian force, which
is responsible for the random motion of suspended particles resulting from collisions with
fast-move molecules of the fluid; and the DEP force, which is due to non-uniform electric
fields. When these three components are combined, the force term in the equation of
motion is given by

1 12k B Tr p 3 2
F = ----- m p  u – v  +  ------------------------------- + 2r p  0  r   E
p t

where the first term is the drag force, which is proportional to the relative velocity between
the particles and the fluid; the second term is the Brownian force, which depends on the
temperature of the fluid and the radius of the particles; and the third term is the DEP,
which is proportional to the gradient of the electric field.

Application Library path: Microfluidics_Module/Applications/

red_blood_cell_separation

Application Library path: Particle_Tracing_Module/Applications/

red_blood_cell_separation

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