Magnetic particle movement program to calculate particle paths in flow and magnetic fields

We developed an analysis program for predicting the movement of magnetic particles in flow and magnetic fields. This magnetic particle movement simulation was applied to a capturing process in a flow cell and a magnetic separation process in a small vessel of an in-vitro diagnostic system. The distributions of captured magnetic particles on a wall were calculated and compared with experimentally obtained distributions. The calculations involved evaluating not only the drag, pressure gradient, gravity, and magnetic force in a flow field but also the friction force between the particle and the wall, and the calculated particle distributions were in good agreement with the experimental distributions. Friction force was simply modeled as static and kinetic friction forces. The coefficients of friction were determined by comparing the calculated and measured results. This simulation method for solving multiphysics problems is very effective at predicting the movements of magnetic particles and is an excellent tool for studying the design and application of devices.