numerical simulation of biological particle separation in a spiral microchannel using the dielectrophoresis mechanism

The present study numerically investigates the continuous, label-free separation of red blood cells and mda-mb-231 breast cancer cells using the dielectrophoresis technique in a spiral microchannel with varying turns. traditional spiral-based methods often lack selectivity for cells with similar size or properties. integrating dep enables tunable manipulation and overcomes these limitations to improve separation. the goal is to enhance throughput and reduce the required voltage by leveraging spiral geometry. the microchannel includes one inlet, two outlets and an applied electrical potential induces dielectrophoretic forces based on the electrical properties of the cells. numerical simulations were conducted using the open-source openfoam platform and were validated against a reference study. key geometric and operational parameters—namely the number of spiral turns, inlet flow velocity, and applied voltage—were systematically examined. results show that increasing the number of turns reduces the necessary voltage, while higher inlet velocities demand greater voltage. for instance, in a channel with five turns and an average inlet velocity of 3000 µm/s, a potential difference of only 8 volts was sufficient for effective separation. these findings highlight the significant role of spiral geometry in improving energy efficiency and separation performance. compared to prior research, this work explores a broader range of flow rates and channel geometries. to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to employ spiral microchannels for dielectrophoretic separation of red blood cells and cancer cells, introducing a novel platform for microfluidic-based biomedical diagnostics.