ENHANCED SETTLING OF MAMMALIAN-CELLS IN TANKS WITH INCLINED PLATES SIMULATION BY FLUID MECHANICAL MODEL AND EXPERIMENT

In perfusion culture of mammalian cells, the cells should be separated from the spent medium and retained in the culture vessel, A possible cell separator for this purpose is a multiple inclined plate space in an agitated or air-circulated culture vessel, Local fluid velocity and cell concentration contours in an assumed hybridoma cell suspension, which was held stationary in such a gravitational cell settler consist ing of multiple open-ended spaces partitioned by inclined plates, were estimated by numerically solving the momentum and continuity equation s, The simulated maximum convection flow velocity was 20 times the Sto kes' velocity of the cells, The flow penetrated into the space below t he lower ends of the inclined plates, The model estimated a larger cel l settling rate than the Ponder-Nakamura-Kuroda (PNK) formula, In our experiment, the cell suspension of hybridoma 2E3 was held stationary i n a vessel containing multiple inclined plates, and the position of th e interface between the clear and turbid fluids was observed, The fall ing rate of the interface was larger than that predicted by the PNK fo rmula, The model can be utilized for designing such cell separators fo r perfusion culture of suspended mammalian cells, including optimizati on of the size and interval of the plates.