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2015 J. Micromech. Microeng. 25 084013

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 Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering

J. Micromech. Microeng. 25 (2015) 084013 (9pp) doi:10.1088/0960-1317/25/8/084013

Scale invariant hydrodynamic focusing and

sorting of inertial particles by size in spiral
micro channels
Phanindra Tallapragada, Nilesh Hasabnis, Kalyan Katuri,
Senbagaraman Sudarsanam, Ketaki Joshi and Melur Ramasubramanian
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA

E-mail: ptallap@clemson.edu

Received 2 March 2015, revised 29 April 2015

Accepted for publication 14 May 2015
Published 22 July 2015

Abstract
The hydrodynamic separation of spherical particles in flows at low Reynolds numbers is a
very active area of research in microfluidic engineering due to the many important biomedical
applications. In particular, curved channels such as spiral channels are of growing interest because
the lift and drag force exerted on inertial particles can be used to hydrodynamically separate the
particles. In this paper we present a scale invariant classification of the lateral focusing of particles
in highly curved spiral micro channels with a square cross section. We then use this scale invariant
classification to demonstrate the separation of particles in two-particle mixtures across a large
range of sizes. We thus show that our results can be used to systematically design the geometry of
devices and select flow parameters to separate particles by size in a mixture.

Keywords: inertial microfluidics, hydrodynamic separation, particle separation

(Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

1. Introduction size, shape, and deformability. Thus, in theory differently

The ability to sort particles, in particular cells, by size has
many important diagnostic or therapeutic applications. The
common cell separation methods rely on immunoselection by
exploiting the selectivity of biological markers. These methods
are often limited due to variations in cell surfaces and the non-
uniform expression of cell markers. These methods also often
damage the cells and have a low throughput. Label-free tech-
niques to sort particles and cells have gained much attention in
recent years. Among label-free techniques, active methods for
cell separation rely on external forces such as electric [1–4],
magnetic [5, 6], and acoustic [7–9] to achieve particle/cell sepa-
ration. While these active methods provide excellent separation
accuracy, they have low throughput and the application of high
electric or magnetic fields can adversely affect cell viability.
Passive methods employ hydrodynamic forces to manipu-
late the motion of particles in a channel. Hydrodynamic forces
acting on particles depend on several factors such as channel
geometry, channel curvature, carrier fluid viscosity, fluid flow
rate, and the physical properties of the particles such as their
sized particles could be forced to position in different regions
of a channel. Such particle focusing in straight channels has
been known about since at least 1961 [10, 11]. Such hydro-
dynamic particle focusing, especially differential focusing
and sorting of particles based on size, has now become an
active area of research in the microfluidics community, see
for example [12–22]. A number of possible biomedical appli-
cations have emerged for the use of passive methods; such
as the identification and separation of circulating tumor cells
[23–25], the separation of leukocytes [19], the separation of
plasma from blood [26], and the encapsulation of cells [27].
One means to achieve hydrodynamic focusing and sorting
of particles is through controlling the geometry of the channel,
such as by using channels with curved walls. Spiral channels
and serpentine channels have been used to demonstrate the
separation of particles by size via differential lateral focusing.
For example, in [12, 13, 28] using a spiral channel with a rec-
tangular cross section, Papautsky and collaborators showed
the separation of particles of diameter 1.9 μm and 7.32 μm
from a two particle mixture as well as the separation of particles

0960-1317/15/084013+9$33.00 1 © 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd  Printed in the UK

J. Micromech. Microeng. 25 (2015) 084013
of diameter 5 μm, 10 μm, and 15 μm with a high efficiency.
Toner et al [29] showed the separation of particles of size 10 μ
m and 7 μm, reported using a spiral channel with a rectangular
cross section. Go et al demonstrated differential lateral focusing
of 20 μm and 40 μm beads in a curved rectangular channel [15].
Hu et al [23] demonstrated the separation of 5 μm and 15 μm
polystyrene beads in a double spiral channel. Han’s group dem-
onstrated the differential focusing and separation of particles
of diameters 15 μm and 25 μm in spiral channels with a very
high aspect ratio trapezoidal cross section [19, 21]. Tracey et al
recently showed that particles of diameters 2.1 μm and 3.2 μm
could be separated using a spiral channel with a square cross
section, of 20 μm × 20 μm [30]. Di Carlo et al [14] showed the
possibility of the separation of particles of size 2 μm and 10 μ
m by multiple passes through a serpentine channel. Recently
Nguyen et al [22] demonstrated the separation of particles of
size 3 μm and 10 μm, and the separation of blood and plasma in
a serpentine channel with a high efficiency [26].
Despite the many investigations exploiting the role of cur-
vature of the channel to sort particles by size, a scale invariant
criteria to enable differential focusing and sorting of particles
by size has not been reported. A scale invariant criteria to
separate particles of any prescribed size in curved channels is
necessary to systematically design micro channels and select
the flow parameters.
In this paper we report on such criteria for spiral micro-
channels with a square cross section that exploit scale invariant
differential lateral focusing. We demonstrate that there are
two distinct sets of non-dimensional sizes of particles which
focus on different lateral positions in the channel. This dif-
ferential lateral focusing reported here is different from those
of earlier findings [12, 13, 28, 29, 31, 32], due to the square
cross section  of the channel and the use of spiral channels
with significantly higher values of δ. We then show that if in
a two-particle mixture the two particles’ sizes fall into these
distinct sets of non-dimensional sizes, then they can be sorted
completely in a single pass through the spiral channel. We
demonstrate this by sorting six two-particle mixtures, ranging
in size from 95 μm to 7 μm using device geometries that are
informed by the criteria for the scale invariant lateral focusing
of particles. While this size range is unusual in microflu-
idics, we are motivated by an important practical problem;
the encapsulation of pancreatic whole islets, whose diameter
can vary between 50 μm to 400 μm in rodents and between
100 μm–200 μm in humans [33]. Separating the islets into
groups of similar sizes is a required step before encapsulation.
Our findings enable the systematic design of channel geome-
tries and the selection of flow parameters to hydrodynamically
separate particles across a range of sizes from a mixture.
The outline of the paper is as follows. In section  2 we
review the forces acting on inertial particles in a channel and
define the non-dimensional parameters governing their motion
and in section 3 we summarize the fabrication method, experi-
mental set up and image analysis. In section 4.1 we present
experimental evidence of scale invariant differential focusing
for particles ranging in diameter from 8 μm to 95 μm. In sec-
tion 4.2 we use the scale invariant differential focusing criteria
to demonstrate the sorting of six two-particle mixtures by size.
2
P Tallapragada et al
2.  Theoretical background
The following notation will be used throughout the rest of
manuscript; U is the average velocity of the fluid through the
channel cross section, ν is the viscosity of the fluid, 2h is the
height and width of the square cross section of a channel, R
is the radius of the curvature of the centerline of the channel,
a is the diameter of a spherical particle and the particle con-
a
finement ratio, λ = 2h . The two Reynolds numbers of interest
are the channel Reynolds number, Re, which characterizes the
undisturbed flow of the fluid in the channel and the particle
Reynolds number, Rep, which characterizes the influence of
the fluid flow on a particle. These are defined in the following
manner,
2Uh
Re =
(1)
ν
and
⎛ a ⎞2
Rep = Re⎜ ⎟ = Reλ2
⎝ 2h ⎠
(2)
Furthermore, if the centerline of the channel is curved, with
a radius of curvature R, the relevant non-dimensional geo-
h
metric parameter is the curvature ratio, δ = R . The interaction
of the fluid flow and the curvature of the channel is described
by the Dean number,
De = Re δ
(3)
The motion of particles in a straight channel, the case
where δ = 0, is well understood and has been examined both
experimentally and theoretically in numerous works [10, 11,
34–38]. In a straight channel, due to shear gradient in the
direction transverse to the axial flow, particles experience a
lift force, FL, which pushes the particles towards the channel
walls [39]. As the particles near the wall, a wall-induced lift
force, FW, pushes the particles towards the centerline of the
channel. The wall-induced lift force is the result of two, pos-
sibly competing, effects. First, the presence of a wall breaks
the symmetry of the spatial distribution of the wake vorticity
of the particles resulting in a lift force directed away from the
walls. Secondly, from potential flow theory, it can be shown
that the faster flow between a sphere and a wall results in a
low pressure on the surface of the sphere adjacent to the wall.
Particles accumulate in a circular annulus at a distance of 0.6h
from the centerline, where the lift forces are balanced. Note
that the Stokes drag in the transverse direction is absent at the
equilibrium position since the relative transverse velocity of
the particle with respect to the fluid is zero.
If the centerline of the channel is curved, i.e. when δ ≠ 0, a
secondary flow in the cross sectional plane exists. Due to the
centrifugal effect, the axial velocity is no longer symmetric
about the axis of the channel. Instead, the axial velocity of the
fluid is the highest between the centerline and the outer wall
of the channel. Thus, the curvature of the channel induces an
asymmetry in the axial velocity and a secondary vortical flow.
For low channel Reynolds number this secondary flow takes
the form of two vortices [40, 41], the so-called Dean vortices.
J. Micromech. Microeng. 25 (2015) 084013
Figure 1.  A representation of a flow in a curved channel. Secondary flows (Dean vortices) are created in the cross sectional plane.
A schematic representation of a flow through a curved channel
with a square cross section  is shown in figure  1, with Dean
vortices shown in the two left-most panels. The secondary
flow exerts a drag force, FD, on a particle that is transverse to
the axis of the channel. As in the case of the straight channel,
a particle also experiences a lift force due to the shear gradient
and the wall-induced lift force. The resulting interaction of
the shear-induced lift force, the wall-induced lift force, and
the drag force due to the Dean flow, all of which depend on
the size of the particles, can lead to size dependent lateral
focusing of the particles.
3.  Materials and methods
3.1.  Microfluidic chip design and fabrication and materials
A standard soft-lithography procedure was used to fabricate
microfluidic devices. High viscosity photoresists (SU-8 2150
and SU-8 2075 from Microchem, Berlin, Germany) were used
to generate resist molds with channel thicknesses up to 500 μm.
The chip was made in PDMS (Sylgard 184, Dow Corning,
Midland, MI, USA). The curing and base agents were mixed
at a ratio of 1:10 and poured onto the silicon wafer mold,
degassed, and cured at 60 °C for 4 h. After curing, inlet and
outlet access holes were made using a biopsy punch before
plasma bonding the PDMS microfluidic chip onto a glass
microscope slide (2’ × 3’ slide, Corning, USA). To improve
the bonding strength the device was placed on a hot plate at
120 °C for 10 min.
Channels with the following cross sectional dimen-
sions were fabricated; 70 μm × 70 μm, 125 μm × 125 μm,
230 μm × 230 μm, 300 μm × 300 μm, 400 μm × 400 μm,
450 μm × 450 μm and 500 μm × 500 μm. Microfluidic chan-
nels were designed as Archimedean spirals. The channels with
a hydraulic diameter of 300 μm and less consisted of 5 loops,
and channels with a hydraulic diameter greater than 300 μm
consisted of 4 loops. Here we define an arm or loop of the spiral
to be the section of the channel, that is traversed in moving
along the spiral by 360°. The figures showing the geometry of
the channels are presented in the next section along with the
3
P Tallapragada et al
corresponding experimental observations. Neutrally buoyant
polyethelene microspheres (Cospheric, California, USA)
and polysterene microspheres (Thermoscientific) of six dif-
ferent diameters; 7 μm, 13 μm, 25 μm, 45 μm, 65 μm and 95
μm were used in the experiments. Water with 0.08% (w/v)
Tween-20 surfactant solution was used as a carrier fluid. In
all the experiments, the particle volume fraction was main-
tained between 0.45%–0.5%, a volume fraction range where
the inter-particle interactions are negligible.
3.2.  Experimental set up
The particle suspension was introduced into the microflu-
idic chip using two 3 ml plastic syringes (BD, Breda, the
Netherlands). A New Era NE-300 series syringe pump was
used to achieve the desired flow rate. A magnetic stirrer bar was
inserted into the particle suspension containing the syringe to
prevent the suspension from settling during the injection. The
flow rate was varied from 5 μl min −1 to 2000 μl min −1. The
microfluidic chip was mounted onto an XYZ translation and
rotational stage. The fluorescence microscope (Nikon, Japan)
had two filter blocks, with excitation filters with wavelength in
blue and green. In addition, a computer-controlled high-speed
camera (Andor Zyla 5.5) was mounted onto the microscope
for image recording, using the accompanying Nikon software.
3.3.  Image acquisition and analysis
Videos and images of the particle ordering in the spiral micro-
channel were captured using the camera at a frame rate of
18–25 frames per second. The exposure time for imaging
fluorescent particles varied between 30 and 100 millisec-
onds at low flow rates to 400 and 800 milliseconds at high
flow rates. The motion of the particles in each of the mix-
tures was imaged separately using blue and green excitation
wavelengths. When the excitation wavelength is green, only
the red fluorescent particles in the two-particle mixture are
visible. When the excitation wavelength is blue, only the
green particles in the two-particle mixture are visible. The
individual movies and pictures collected were superimposed
J. Micromech. Microeng. 25 (2015) 084013 P Tallapragada et al

Figure 2.  Differential lateral focusing of particles in a spiral channel with cross section 300 μm × 300 μm. The picture at the top shows the
geometry of the device in which the experiment was performed. The region of the device bounded by the red rectangle in this picture is the
imaged area. In the table of images the left-most column shows the time lapse images of the positions of particles of diameter 25 μm in the
imaged region. The right-most column shows the time lapse images of the positions of particles of diameter 45 μm. Along each row the
corresponding normalized histograms of particle distribution f (d ) as a function of d are shown. The green histograms show the distribution
of the smaller particles, while the red histogram shows the distribution of the larger particles. The value of δ is fixed along each column
and this corresponds to the average value of the parameter δ along the segment of the spirals shown. Note—all the images in the left-most
column are time lapse images obtained by overlaying the particle position in every frame of a 20 s video.

Table 1.  The table shows the particle confinement ratio for various analyzed with the image processing toolbox of MATLAB and
combinations of particles and different sized channels in the the imaging software Nikon Elements.
experiments.
Particle diameter, a p, in μm
4.  Results and discussion
8 13 25 45 65 95
4.1.  Scale invariant differential lateral focusing of particles
2h 70 0.114 0.186 — — — —
125 — 0.104 0.2 — — — Inertial particles of different sizes are focused to different
230 — — 0.108 0.195 — — lateral positions in the channel. This differential focusing
300 — — 0.083 0.15 0.216 — and whether focusing occurs are a function of the channel
400 — — 0.0625 0.1125 0.1625 0.2375 Reynolds number, the curvature ratio, δ, and the particle con-
450 — — 0.055 0.1 0.144 0.211
finement ratio, λ. An example of differential lateral focusing
500 — — 0.05 0.09 0.13 0.19
of particles is shown in figures  2. The left-most and right-
most columns show the overlayed streaklines of 25 μm and
45 μm particles respectively. To make these experimental
to clearly show the differential focusing of the particles in the
observations of particle focusing in the micro channels
mixtures. The low frame rate, when combined with longer
objective, we define a spatial particle density function, f (d ),
exposure times, helped us obtain better composite images that
as follows,
showed tight bands of focused particles. The high exposure
time ensured that the thickness of the focused bands was not N (d )
underestimated. When capturing bright field images of lateral f (d ) = 1 .
(4)
focusing of the particles the frame rates varied between 18 ∫ N (y)dy 0
and 25. Many (about 600) image frames of moving particles
were overlayed to generate composite images of focused Here the normalized distance from the inner walls of the
x
bands of particles. Observing particle focusing consistently in channel, d = 2h , as shown in figure 1, varies from 0 to 1. The
such composite images gave us confidence in the reproduc- number of particles passing through the channel at a distance
ibility of the results. All the videos and images captured were d from the inner wall of the channel is denoted by N (d ).

4
J. Micromech. Microeng. 25 (2015) 084013
0.25
Large particles
0.2 focus at the
center
0.15
λ wall
0.1 Small particles
focus at the
0.05 inner wall
0 δ
0 0.25 0.5 0.75
d
Figure 3.  (a) The mean position of the spatial density function when the particles are focused. The green squares show the mean positions
of focused bands for the smaller particles, while the red triangles show the mean positions of focused bands for the the larger particles.
There are clearly two regimes in particle focusing, particles with λ ⩽ 0.12 focus towards the inner wall, while particles with λ > 0.12 focus
towards the center of the channel. (b) The lowest channel Reynolds numbers and the curvature ratio δ when focusing of the particles is first
observed.
To objectively identify particle focusing, we set a quantita-
tive criteria to define particle focusing in terms of the standard
deviation of f (d ) and the area under the spatial density func-
tion. Let the mean and standard deviation of f (d ) be μ and σ .
We defined the particles to be focused, when
μ+b
f (y )dy ⩾ 0.9
(5) ∫μ−b
where b = min[σ , 0.15]. Thus, when the position of at least
90% of the particles are restricted to a narrow band that is
either 2σ wide or 0.3h which ever is lower, the particles are
defined to be focused.
The functions N (d ) and f (d ) were calculated in a dis-
crete fashion by splitting the range of d, the unit interval, into
50 equal bins of size 0.02. The number of particles passing
through these bins during the experiment was counted. A par-
ticle was defined to lay in a bin if its geometric center lies in
it. Segments were selected across at the end of each arm of
the spiral for these measurements. These segments included
the channel close to the inlet and the channel at the end of the
spiral.
Figure 2 demonstrates that the smaller 25 μm particles
focus towards the inner wall of the spiral channel and the
larger 45 μm particles focus towards the outer wall of the
spiral channel. The larger particles begin to focus for a smaller
Reynolds number (in this case Re = 5.5) than the smaller par-
ticles which focus at a higher Reynolds number (in this case
Re = 16.67).
To obtain an empirical scale invariant rule to classify the
differential lateral focusing regimes, we performed experi-
ments across a range of values of the channel Reynolds
number and different sized particles in flows through spiral
channels. All the channels had square cross sections, with the
sides varying in length from 70 μm to 500 μm. The diam-
eters of the particles ranged from 8 μm to 95 μm. While this
size range is unusual in microfluidics, we are motivated by an
important practical problem; the encapsulation of pancreatic
whole islets, whose diameter can vary between 50 μm–400 μm
P Tallapragada et al
30
25
Small particles
20 focus at the inner
Re
15
10
Large particles
5
focus at the
center
0
0 0.025 0.05 0.075
1
in rodents and between 100 μm–200 μm in humans [33].
Table  1 lists the confinement ratio, λ, of the particles used
with the various devices. The channel Reynolds number, Re,
varied from 0.03 to 50 and the Dean number, De, varied from
0.005 to 15. The Dean number range is considerably higher
than in the results reported in the earlier literature. Table 1 lists
21 particle-channel combinations. For each of these combi-
nations the focused positions of the particles in the channel
were determined using the same criteria as in 5. In the case of
smaller particles (8 μm and 13 μm) fluorescence images were
analyzed.
The focused positions of particles as a function of the non-
dimensional distance, d, from the inner wall are shown in
figure 3(a). The red triangles represent the focused positions
of particles that focus close to the center of the channel, and
the green squares represent the focused positions of particles
that focus close to the inner wall of the channel. Clearly larger
particles (λ > 0.12) focus towards the center and the smaller
particles (λ < 0.12) focus towards the inner wall. Figure 3(b)
shows the smallest channel Reynolds number at which the
focusing occurs as a function of the curvature ratio, δ. Larger
particles (represented by red triangles) focus at smaller
channel Reynolds numbers, while the smaller particles (rep-
resented by green squares) focus at larger Reynolds numbers.
It is also apparent from figure 3(a) that there is a very rapid,
bifurcation-like transition in the equilibrium positions of par-
ticles as the confinement ratio increases.
The results shown in figure 3 clearly demonstrate a scale
invariant law that governs the differential lateral focusing of
particles in a spiral channel or more generally in a curved
channel. It should also be noted that the results in figure 2 and
3 show novel particle focusing behavior. In earlier works [12,
13, 28, 29, 31, 32], inertial particles were found to be focused
between the inner wall and the centerline of the channel, with
the larger particles focusing closer to the inner wall. Smaller
particles are usually reported to be either focused closer to the
center line or unfocused if λ < 0.07, [12–14]. Our results differ
because of the higher values of the curvature ratio, δ, (and cor-
respondingly higher values of the Dean number De = Re δ )
5
J. Micromech. Microeng. 25 (2015) 084013
Figure 4.  Separation of particles of diameter 25 μm and 65 μm from a mixture at Re = 44.4. The images in (a), (b), and (d) are obtained
from the section of device enclosed by the rectangle in (c). The two-particle mixture is pumped at a constant flow rate through the inlet at
the center of the spiral.
that we considered. This unexplored parametric regime pro-
duced a consistent scale invariant differential lateral focusing
of particles in spiral channels. A crucial observation about the
scale invariant focusing we observed is the robustness of the
focused positions to changes in the channel Reynolds number.
Once focusing of the particles is achieved in the range
5 < Re < 30, the focused positions do not change for Reynolds
numbers as high as 80.
4.2.  Application to hydrodynamic sorting of particles by size
The size dependent differential lateral focusing demonstrated
in our experiments has a clear transition terms of particle con-
finement ratio, see figure 3(a). This data suggests a potential
rule to sort particles by size in a single pass; particles whose
non-dimensional sizes fall into the two distinct categories
shown in figure 3(a) can be sorted. However, sorting a mixture
of large and small particles whose confinement ratios are both
close to 0.12 in one pass is practically difficult. This is because
the focused bands of particles could be too close to each other,
where the particles in one band influence the motion of the
particles in the other band. Therefore, a good practical design
rule suggested by our data to separate particles by size from a
6
P Tallapragada et al
mixture in a single pass is— the hydraulic diameter of a spiral
channel with a square cross section  should be chosen such
that in a two-particle mixture larger particles have a confine-
ment ratio, λ ⩾ 0.15, and smaller particles have a confinement
ratio, λ ⩽ 0.1. The curvature ratio can be selected based on the
data in figure 3(b).
We test this design rule by demonstrating the sorting of par-
ticles by size in six two-particle mixtures. The particle sizes in
these mixtures and the channel dimensions were chosen such
that the larger of the particles had a particle confinement ratio
greater than or equal to 0.15, and that of the smaller of the
particles was lesser than or equal to 0.1. In every mixture the
volume fractions of the smaller and larger particles are 0.25%
each. In each of the sorting experiments with two-particle
mixtures, the fluorescent particles in the flow are visualized
using a green excitation for half the duration of the experiment
and using blue excitation during the other half. Therefore, red
fluorescent particles are visible during one half of the experi-
ment and green fluorescent particles are visible during the
other half. For example, in the case of the mixture consisting
of particles of diameter 25 μm and 65 μm, figure 4(a) shows
the focused band (red) of particles of diameter 65 μm close to
the center of the channel. Figure 4(b) shows the focused band
J. Micromech. Microeng. 25 (2015) 084013 P Tallapragada et al

Figure 5.  Sorting by particles by size from two-particle mixtures—the table shows the particle sizes that are sorted and the hydraulic
diameter of the corresponding channels. The last column in the table gives the Reynolds number at which complete separation was
obtained for the particle pairs. In each of the figures (a)–(e) the device layout is shown on the left. The inlet for the mixture is at the center
of the spiral. The device diagrams have a blue rectangle which shows the area that is imaged. The corresponding image of the fluorescent
particles, one red and the other green, is shown to the right. This image has a white rectangle. A zoomed-in picture of the particle streaks in
this rectangular region showing two separate bands of particles is also shown.

(green) of particles of diameter 25 μm close to the inner wall
of the channel. The differential focusing of the particles in the
mixture is clarified in figure 4(d) which is obtained by super-
imposing figure 4(a) and 4(b). Figure 4(c) shows the layout
of the device used to sort the mixture of particles. The two-
particle mixture is pumped at a constant flow rate through the
inlet at the center of the spiral. Clearly the particles of each
size are focused in two distinct bands in the outer arm of the
spiral and the separation distance between the two bands is
about 28 μm. The Reynolds number at which the separation
occurs is Re = 44.4.
Figure 5 shows the sorting of particles in five other
two-particle mixtures. The particle sizes and the hydraulic
diameters of the channels used to the sort the particles are
listed in the table in the left-hand upper corner of the figure.
The last column in the table  gives the Reynolds number at
which complete separation was obtained for the particle pairs.
Each of the images in 5(a-e) show the geometry of the spiral
channel in which the sorting is performed, and an image of
green and red fluorescent streaks in a sub-region of the device,
along with a zoomed-in image of the well-separated streak
lines in the channel close to the outlet. The ratio of the sizes
a a
of the particles being sorted range from a1 = 1.8 to a1 = 3.46.
2 2
The channel Reynolds number at which complete differen-
tial lateral focusing occurs in the two outermost spiral arms in
the case of a mixture is in the range of 40–50. This is signifi-
cantly higher than for the case when only particles of one size
are present. While a rigorous explanation for this phenomena
is lacking and is left for future work, we can advance a hypoth-
esis to explain this. Particles of the two size categories, small

7
J. Micromech. Microeng. 25 (2015) 084013
(λ < 0.12) and large (λ > 0.12), focus in two laterally distinct
bands in the channel. The small particles focus closer to the
inner walls, while the larger particles focus towards the center.
At low volume fractions the longitudinal distance between
two particles in the same band is large, on the order of ten
times the particle diameter. At this distance the influence of
particles on each others’ motion is small. However, the lat-
eral distance between particles in two adjacent focused bands
is small. The resulting interaction between the wake of the
particles could explain the increase in the Reynolds number
at which differential focusing occurs. However, the classifica-
tion chart for differential lateral focusing 3(a) is also valid for
two-particle mixtures.
5. Conclusion
With the increasing interest in the applications of inertial
hydrodynamics in curved channels and the potentially impor-
tant biomedical applications, it is important to identify the
scale invariant behavior of inertial particles and their differ-
ential lateral focusing. In this paper we have demonstrated the
existence of a new parametric regime in which inertial par-
ticles focus in a hitherto unknown manner in spiral channels.
We also demonstrated a scale invariant principle for hydro-
dynamic focusing and the sorting of particles by size across
a very large size range. The data in figure 3, demonstrates a
parametric regime for differential lateral focusing of particles
by size. This scale invariant differential lateral focusing of
particles is a useful rule to systematically engineer devices
to sort particles by size. Our experiments have demonstrated
a consistent principle for sorting particles by size where the
a induced acoustophoretic motion of microparticles in three
ratio of the sizes of the particles, a1 , is as low as 1.8. The data
2
in figure  3 indicates that the non-dimensional resolution for
sorting particles by size could be as low as 1 : 1.5.
Our experiments on sorting two-particle mixtures indi-
cate a possible mechanism to sort multi-particle mixtures
sequentially. In each sequence particles can be separated into
two size categories with confinement ratios, λ < 0.12 and
λ > 0.12, respectively. Devices with appropriate curvature
can be designed based on the data in figure  3. The channel
Reynolds number at which this sorting is possible is in the
range of 40–50, which allows high throughput. At the same
time, these Reynolds numbers are not high enough to cause
high pressure on the channel walls that could deform the walls
of devices made of PDMS.
The scale invariant size-based differential focusing of
particles could possible change with the changes in the
two geometric parameters, aspect ratio and curvature ratio,
δ. Decreasing the curvature ratio to zero (a straight channel)
obviously changes the focusing behavior. It is therefore pos-
sible that when the curvature ratio is significantly lower than
the values used in our findings, the focusing behavior of par-
ticles changes significantly. At high aspect ratios, the balance
between Dean drag and lift forces can occur at different lateral
positions in the channel; see for example [42] for a detailed
numerical and experimental exploration of different cases.
The resulting gap between differentially focused bands of
8
P Tallapragada et al
particles could be larger. The advantages of different channel
aspect ratios and curvature ratios for robust scale invariant dif-
ferential focusing of particles could be explored further.
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