Blood-plasma separation in Y-shaped bifurcating microfluidic channels: A dissipative particle dynamics simulation study

摘要

The motion of a suspension of red blood cells (RBCs) flowing in a Y-shaped bifurcating microfluidic channel is investigated using a validated low-dimensional RBC (LD-RBC) model based on dissipative particle dynamics (DPD). Specifically, the RBC is represented as a closed torus-like ring of ten colloidal particles, which leads to efficient simulations of blood flow in microcirculation over a wide range of hematocrits. Adaptive no-slip wall boundary conditions were implemented to model hydrodynamic flow within a specific wall structure of diverging 3D microfluidic channels, paying attention to controlling density fluctuations. Plasma skimming and the all-or-nothing phenomenon of RBCs in a bifurcating microfluidic channel have been investigated in our simulations for healthy and diseased blood, including the size of cell-free layer on the daughter branches. The feed hematocrit level in the parent channel has considerable influence on blood-plasma separation. Compared to the blood-plasma separation efficiencies of healthy RBCs, malaria-infected stiff RBCs (iRBCs) have a tendency to travel into the low flowrate daughter branch because of their different initial distribution in the parent channel. Our simulation results are consistent with previously published experimental results and theoretical predictions.