Elasto inertial microfluidics is a relatively undiscovered field of science, based on the physical laws governing the movement of particles at the micro and/or nano scale in various non-Newtonian liquids. An understanding of these laws could allow for the separation of microparticles from liquids using only their flow patterns, allowing for a new technique of particle separation that does not require any chemical bonding. The technology has numerous potential applications within both environmental and medical fields.

Our project's aim is to further the understanding of elasto inertial microfluidics by experimentally confirming and testing microfluidic data, specifically particle flow patterns in small channels. In our project, we have tested and recorded several different combinations of particle sizes, channel shapes and dimensions, fluid viscosities and flow rates in order to determine the influence of each parameter on the particle flow patterns.

Based on the results of our research, particles do not focus on a singular point/ line, but are instead spread out over different ranges of varying sizes. Depending on particle size and flow rate, these ranges span different areas of the same microchannel. This means that if two ranges of different sizes of microparticles do not overlap, complete separation of the two microparticle sizes is possible using only microfluidics. Another important discovery for particle separation is the interaction between the channel length and the flow rate. After particles reach different positions in a chip, they need a certain amount of time in order for the particles to reach a focused equilibrium point. If the flow rate is high, and the channel is short, the particles often do not have time to reach equilibrium before being washed out of the chip. This leads to significantly less focusing in the flows, resulting in larger particle ranges.