Numerical Analysis and Experiment for Microparticle Collector Using Dielectrophoretic Force

The motion of dielectric microparticles in the proposed particle collector is modeled and analyzed with coupled equations of electromagnetics, fluidics, and particle dynamics. The dielectrophoretic and drag forces on microparticles are obtained using distributions of electric field and fluid velocity field. The two fields are numerically calculated by the FEM. All the forces on the particles are employed for Newton´s dynamic equation for particle motion analysis. To evaluate the proposed new method, an experimental system for the particle collector is designed and built to measure the trapping performance, which is estimated using standard microparticles and a particle counter under a given air flow.