Hydrodynamic repulsion of spheroidal microparticles from micro-rough surfaces

Isolation of microparticles and biological cells from mixtures and suspensions is a central problem in a variety of biomedical applications. This problem, for instance, is of an immense importance for microfluidic devices manipulating with whole blood samples. It is instructive to know how the mobility and dynamics of rigid microparticles is altered by the presence of micrometer-size roughness on walls. The presented theoretical study addresses this issue via computer simulations. The approach is based on a combination of the Lattice Boltzmann method for calculating hydrodynamics and the Lagrangian Particle dynamics method to describe the dynamics of cell membranes. The effect of the roughness on the mobility of spheroidal microparticles in a shear fluid flow was quantified. We conclude that mechanical and hydrodynamic interactions lift the particles from the surface and change their mobility. The effect is sensitive to the shape of particles.