A design and numerical analysis of microfluidic for blood plasma separation

• Main Author: Sheikh Muhammad Za'im Bin Sheikh Zahib
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Blood plasma separation; microfluide device; plasma skimmimg; Zweifach - Fung effect

The blood-plasma separation process is important in medical application such as identifying Iron Deficiency Anaemia. However, the active separation methods (by magnetic, acoustic. etc.) depend on the external devices and are expensive to be applied especially in remote region. The passive separation methods such as through hydrodynamics and geometry. This study aims to design a passive microfluidic device based on the main-daughter channels configuration. There are various design have been studied to separate plasma from blood. However, the efficiency of microfluidic devices are mostly affected by the number of RBCs that enter the daughter micro channel. The proposed design in this study have significant improvement in terms of separation efficiency and purity efficiency. PE value has increased from 65.41% to 99%, while SE value has increased from 64.46% to 90.4%. Langrangian approach has been used to study the blood trajectory along the main channel which will be very useful in order to