Fig. 5.

Simulations of the progression of a cell through a DEP-FFF channel under different experimental conditions. (A) With no DEP field, cells move by conventional sedimentation-FFF at a height determined by the balance of sedimentation and HDLF effects. Changes in the hydrodynamic geometry function F(S, M) impact the height and corresponding velocity with which cells travel. (B – D) Simulations of cell progress during a logarithmically-programmed sweep of the DEP field frequency from 160 kHz to 15 kHz over 600 seconds. At short times the DEP frequency greatly exceeds the cell crossover frequency f₀ and cells move at minimum velocity V_min. Later, cells move faster as the swept frequency passes through f₀. At still longer times the DEP frequency has fallen far below f₀, and cells moves at maximum velocity, V_max. (B) Increasing the cell density ρ_p decreases the maximum velocity V_max but leaves V_min unchanged. (C) Increasing the hydrodynamic geometry function F(S, M) increases V_min but leaves V_max unchanged. (D) Increasing the crossover frequency f₀ leaves V_max and V_min unchanged, but increases the time at which the transition of the velocities occurs.