Effective Diffusivity and Optimal Time of Separation UNDER NON-Newtonian Behavior of FLUID FLOW in Electrical FIELD FLOW Fractionation

EFFECTIVE DIFFUSIVITY AND OPTIMAL TIME OF SEPARATION UNDER NON-NEWTONIAN BEHAVIOR OF FLUID FLOW IN ELECTRICAL FIELD FLOW FRACTIONATION

¹Steffano Oyanader; ²Stephen Dueck; ²Mario Oyanader

¹Bioengineering Department, and ²Chemical Engineering Department, California Baptist University, 8432 Magnolia Ave, Riverside, CA 92504, Email: moyanader@calbaptist.edu

The separation of pharmaceuticals and metabolites for treatment and diagnosis from bio-samples is carried on cylindrical devices. The Non-Newtonian behavior of the carrier fluid in this case is  often neglected to reduce the complexity of the analysis and mathematical derivation.  Following this approach, in electrical field flow fractionation (EFFF) several parameters have been investigated to optimize molecular separation [Pascal, Oyanader, and Arce, 2008 and 2010]. The main focus of this contribution is to extend the knowledge and understanding of the carrier fluid effect on the effective diffusivity and optimal time of separation for a more realistic case as that of Non-Newtonian fluids.  Analytical expression for the most important parameters are reported and have been obtained using the spatial area averaging methodology. The analysis has been illustrated by selecting parameter values that represent a number of potential useful applications. A set of five parameters has been combined to obtain the best operating conditions for optimal separation of solutes. Effective transport parameters are used to study the role of the power law "n" parameter and of the magnitude of the applied orthogonal electrical field on the values of the optimal time of separation of species on Non-Newtonian (pseudo-plastic and dilatants) applications.