• BioChip Journal
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.257-267
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• 2018

Inertial microfluidics has attracted significant attention in recent years due to its superior benefits of high throughput, precise control, simplicity, and low cost. Many inertial microfluidic applications have been demonstrated for physiological sample processing, clinical diagnostics, and environmental monitoring and cleanup. In this review, we discuss the fundamental mechanisms and principles of inertial migration and Dean flow, which are the basis of inertial microfluidics, and provide basic scaling laws for designing the inertial microfluidic devices. This will allow end-users with diverse backgrounds to more easily take advantage of the inertial microfluidic technologies in a wide range of applications. A variety of recent applications are also classified according to the structure of the microchannel: straight channels and curved channels. Finally, several future perspectives of employing fluid inertia in microfluidic-based cell sorting are discussed. Inertial microfluidics is still expected to be promising in the near future with more novel designs using various shapes of cross section, sheath flows with different viscosities, or technologies that target micron and submicron bioparticles.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.11-15
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• 2012

Inertial migration phenomena of phytoplankton in pipe flows were investigated using a digital holography technique. As the Reynolds number increases, the microorganisms suspended in a pipe flow are focused at a certain radial position which is called equilibrium position or pinch point. In this study, the effects of the size of microorganism and Reynolds number in the range of 1 < Re < 78 on the inertial migration were investigated and the results are compared with those for solid particles under similar experimental conditions. As a result, the equilibrium position for the elastic microorganisms is not so distinct, compared to the solid particles. This results from deformation of elastic body shape caused by shear-gradient of surrounding flow.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.504-507
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• 2011

The inertial migration of a two-dimensional elastic capsule in a channel flow was studied over the Reynolds number range $1{\leq}Re{\leq}100$. The lateral migration velocity, slip velocity, and the deformation and inclination angle of the capsule were investigated by varying the lateral position, Reynolds number, capsule-to-channel size ratio(${\lambda}$), membrane stretching coefficient(${\Phi}$), and membrane bending coefficient(${\gamma}$). During the initial transient motion, the lateral migration velocity increased with increasing Re and ${\lambda}$ but decreased with increases in ${\Phi}$, ${\gamma}$ and the lateral distance from the wall. The initial behavior of the capsule was influenced by variation in the initial lateral position ($y_0$), but the equilibrium position of the capsule was not affected by such variation. The balance between the wall effect and the shear gradient effect determined the equilibrium position. As Re increased, the equilibrium position initially shifted closer to the wall and then moved towards the channel center. A peak in the equilibrium position was observed near Re=30 for ${\gamma}=0.1$, and the peak shifted to higher Re as ${\gamma}$ increased. Depending on the lateral migration velocity, the equilibrium position moved toward the centerline for larger ${\gamma}$ but moved toward the wall for larger ${\Phi}$ and ${\gamma}$.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2012

We explored the dynamic motions and the lateral equilibrium positions of an elastic capsule in channel flow at moderate Reynolds number varying Re, aspect ratio, size ratio, membrane stretching and bending coefficient. The transition of tank-treading/swinging to tumbling motion was observed in the simulations and the transition of dynamic motions for capsules resulted in different trend of the variation in the lateral equilibrium positions. Though other conditions were similar, the capsule with tumbling motion migrated closer to the wall than that with tank-treading motion.

• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.99-107
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• 2007

A nanofluid is a mixture of solid nanoparticles and a common base fluid. Nanofluids have shown great potential in improving the heat transfer properties of liquids. However, previous studies on the characteristics of nanofluids did not adequately explain the enhancement of heat transfer. This study examined the distribution of particles in a fluid and compared the mechanism for the enhancement of heat transfer in a nanofluid with that in a general microparticle suspension. A theoretical model was formulated with shear-induced particle migration, viscosity-induced particle migration, particle migration by Brownian motion, as well as the inertial migration of particles. The results of the simulation showed that there was no significant particle migration, with no change in particle concentration in the radial direction. A uniform particle concentration is very important in the heat transfer of a nanofluid. As the particle concentration and effective thermal conductivity at the wall region is lower than that of the bulk fluid, due to particle migration to the center of a microfluid, the addition of microparticles in a fluid does not affect the heat transfer properties of that fluid. However, in a nanofluid, particle migration to the center occurs quite slowly, and the particle migration flux is very small. Therefore, the effective thermal conductivity at the wall region increases with increasing addition of nanoparticles. This may be one reason why a nanofluid shows a good convective heat transfer performance.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.501-508
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• 1987

Experimental studies of particle (TiO$\_$2/) deposition from the laminar hot gas particle flow (about 1565K) onto the cold wall surface (about 1215K-1530K) were carried out by the 'real time' laser light reflectivity method (LLRM) and the photographs of scanning electron microscope(SEM). The LLRM was used for the measurement of thermophoretic deposition rates of small particles (d$\_$p/<3.mu.m), and the photographs of SEM were used for determining what factors control the collection of particles having diameters ranging from 0.2 to 30 microns. Two phenomena are primarily responsible for transport of the particles across the laminar boundary layers and deposition: (1) particle thermophoresis (i.e. particles migration down a temperature gradient), and (2) particle inertial impaction, the former effect being especially larger factor of the particle deposition in its size over the range of 0.2 to 1 microns. And also, this study indicates that thermophoresis can be important for particles as large as 15 microns. Beyond d$\_$p/=16.mu.m, this effect diminishes and the inertial impaction is taken into account as a dominant mechanism of particle deposition. The results of present experiments found to be in close agreement with existing theories.