Controlled manipulation of particles from very large volumes of fluid at high throughput is critical for many biomedical, environmental and industrial applications. One promising approach is to use microfluidic technologies that rely on fluid inertia or elasticity to drive lateral migration of particles to stable equilibrium positions in a microchannel. Here, we report on a hydrodynamic approach that enables deterministic focusing of beads, mammalian cells and anisotropic hydrogel particles in a microchannel at extremely high flow rates. We show that on addition of micromolar concentrations of hyaluronic acid, the resulting fluid viscoelasticity can be used to control the focal position of particles at Reynolds numbers up to Re≈10,000 with corresponding flow rates and particle velocities up to 50 ml min−1 and 130 m s−1. This study explores a previously unattained regime of inertio-elastic fluid flow and demonstrates bioparticle focusing at flow rates that are the highest yet achieved. Controlled manipulation of particles from very large volumes of fluid at high throughput is critical for many real-world applications. Here, the authors show bioparticle focusing in a microchannel for a previously unattained regime of inertio-elastic flow at Reynolds numbers up to 10,000.

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Inertio-elastic focusing of bioparticles in microchannels at high throughput

Nonlinear water wave interaction with floating bodies in SPH

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) for complex fluid flows: Recent developments in methodology and applications

Numerical simulations are extensively used to investigate the motion of suspended particles in a fluid and their influence on the dynamics of the overall flow. Contexts range from the rheology of concentrated suspensions in a viscous fluid to the dynamics of particle-laden turbulent flows. This review summarizes several current approaches to the numerical simulation of rigid particles suspended in a flow, pointing out both common features and differences, along with their primary range of application. The focus is on non-Brownian systems for which thermal fluctuations do not play a role, whereas interparticle forces may result in particle self-assembly. Applications may include the motion of a few isolated particles with complex shape or the collective dynamics of many suspended particles.

Simulation Methods for Particulate Flows and Concentrated Suspensions

The rheological properties of soft materials often exhibit surprisingly universal linear and nonlinear features. Here we show that these properties can be unified by considering the effect of the strain-rate amplitude on the structural relaxation of the material. We present a new form of oscillatory rheology, strain-rate frequency superposition (SRFS), where the strain-rate amplitude is fixed as the frequency is varied. We show that SRFS can isolate the response due to structural relaxation, even when it occurs at frequencies too low to be accessible with standard techniques.

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Strain-Rate Frequency Superposition (SRFS) - A rheological probe of structural relaxation in soft materials

A weakly compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics (WCSPH) method is used along with a new no-slip boundary condition to simulate movement of rigid bodies in incompressible Newtonian fluid flows. It is shown that the new boundary treatment method helps to efficiently calculate the hydrodynamic interaction forces acting on moving bodies. To compensate the effect of truncated compact support near solid boundaries, the method needs specific consistent renormalized schemes for the first and second-order spatial derivatives. In order to resolve the problem of spurious pressure oscillations in the WCSPH method, a modification to the continuity equation is used which improves the stability of the numerical method. The performance of the proposed method is assessed by solving a number of two-dimensional low-Reynolds fluid flow problems containing circular solid bodies. Wherever possible, the results are compared with the available numerical data.

A modified SPH method for simulating motion of rigid bodies in Newtonian fluid flows

An explicit weakly compressible SPH method is introduced to study movement of suspended solid bodies in Oldroyd-B fluid flows. The proposed formulation does not need further stabilizing treatments and can be efficiently employed to study particulate flows with Deborah to Reynolds number ratios up to around 10. A modified boundary treatment technique is also presented which helps to deal with the movement of solid particles in the flow. The technique is computationally efficient and gives an improved evaluation of fluid-solid interaction forces. A number of test cases are solved to show performance of the proposed method in simulating particulate viscoelastic flows containing circular and non-circular cylinders. The effect of Deborah number on the particle trajectory has been investigated.

SPH simulation of interacting solid bodies suspended in a shear flow of an Oldroyd-B fluid

An enriched finite element/level-set method for simulating two-phase incompressible fluid flows with surface tension

A direct numerical simulation approach is used to investigate the effective non-linear viscoelastic stress response of non-gap-spanning magnetic chains suspended in a Newtonian fluid. The suspension is confined in a channel and the suspended clusters are formed under the influence of a constant external magnetic field. Large amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) tests are conducted to study the non-linear rheology of the system. The effect of inertia on the intensity of non-linearities is discussed for both magnetic and non-magnetic cases. By conducting magnetic sweep tests, the intensity and quality of the non-linear stress response are studied as a function of the strength of the external magnetic field. The Chebyshev expansion of the stress response is used to quantify the non-linear intra-cycle behaviour of the suspension. It is demonstrated that the system shows a strain-softening behaviour while the variation of the dynamic viscosity is highly sensitive to the external magnetic field. In a series of strain sweep tests, the overall non-linear viscoelastic behaviour of the system is also investigated for both a constant frequency and a constant strain-rate amplitude. It is shown that the intra-cycle behaviour of the system is different from its inter-cycle behaviour under LAOS tests.A direct numerical simulation approach is used to investigate the effective non-linear viscoelastic stress response of non-gap-spanning magnetic chains suspended in a Newtonian fluid. The suspension is confined in a channel and the suspended clusters are formed under the influence of a constant external magnetic field. Large amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) tests are conducted to study the non-linear rheology of the system. The effect of inertia on the intensity of non-linearities is discussed for both magnetic and non-magnetic cases. By conducting magnetic sweep tests, the intensity and quality of the non-linear stress response are studied as a function of the strength of the external magnetic field. The Chebyshev expansion of the stress response is used to quantify the non-linear intra-cycle behaviour of the suspension. It is demonstrated that the system shows a strain-softening behaviour while the vari...

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Non-linear stress response of non-gap-spanning magnetic chains suspended in a Newtonian fluid under oscillatory shear test: A direct numerical simulation

In this paper, a pressure splitting formulation is proposed for Weakly Compressible SPH (WC-SPH) method and its capability in the suppression of the spurious oscillations is studied by conducting a stability analysis. The proposed formulation is implemented within the framework of a consistent SPH method. The predictions from the theoretical analysis are verified by the results of numerical test-cases. This method is applied to the incompressible fluid flow around periodic array of circular cylinders. The accuracy and the convergence of the results are investigated for benchmark problems. The results are also compared with those of the conventional WC-SPH method. In a similar test-case, the effects of the artificial speed of sound on the evolution of the transient solution and the occurrence of the spurious oscillations in the steady state are studied, and compared for both the conventional and the proposed WC-SPH formulations. The improvements in the evaluation of the pressure field, due to the proposed pressure splitting formulation, are shown for both a vanishing Reynolds number and a finite Reynolds number of R e ~ O ( 1 ) .

M.R. Hashemi

Papers

A modified SPH method for simulating motion of rigid bodies in Newtonian fluid flows

SPH simulation of interacting solid bodies suspended in a shear flow of an Oldroyd-B fluid

An enriched finite element/level-set method for simulating two-phase incompressible fluid flows with surface tension

Non-linear stress response of non-gap-spanning magnetic chains suspended in a Newtonian fluid under oscillatory shear test: A direct numerical simulation

Evaluation of a pressure splitting formulation for Weakly Compressible SPH