Executive Summary : | Inertial migration is an effective passive separation technic employed in microfluidics for sorting and separation of various shaped particles under different background flow conditions. Recently, the Covid-19 pandemic has made the separation of bioaerosol particles an important subject of matter to research community for disease control and safety of human health. With this perspective, the present proposal investigates the inertial migration dynamics of aerosol particles in channel flow under different fluid flow conditions and channel configurations. The inertial migration finally leads to attaining stable equilibrium positions in the channel from where it can be separated for further bioanalysis and applications. The determination of equilibrium positions and time to reach these positions known as migration time are highly significant for effective design of separation devices. These parameters are affected by background flow conditions, channel shape and dimensions, particles size and shape and its initial position. Also, separation of multiple particles under different conditions need to explore since such situations happens in the real word simulations. Hence, development of an efficient three-dimensional computational model is essential to address these features by performing series of numerical simulations. This is the prime objective of the present proposal which will implement through immersed boundary method as the numerical tool. In the next stage, prediction models for inertial migration and separation will be developed using artificial neural networks using the simulation data which will help in the design and optimization of efficient microfluidic separation and sorting devices for biomedical applications in the field of inertial microfluidics. The determination of external control force through numerical simulations and prediction models for designing predefined migration and separation strategies will also be significant achievement of this proposal. |