Dynamics of rigid fibers interacting with triangular obstacles in microchannel flows

We combine experiments and numerical simulations to investigate the interaction between a rigid fiber and a triangular obstacle in a microfluidic channel. We find different dynamics depending on the initial position and orientation of the fiber. We show that these dynamics are dictated by the fiber configuration in the vicinity of the obstacle. Some dynamics induce a cross-stream migration which grows with the fiber length. Our findings could in the future be used to design and optimize microfluidic sorting devices to sort rigid fibers by length.