The macroscopic particle model (MPM) based on the finite volume method is employed to validate a mechanism of lift force-induced particle separation in a curved microchannel. According to the particle velocity at each time step in the unsteady simulation, the MPM gives momentum to those fluid cells touching the particle physical boundary. The summation of the given momentum with the reversed sign is divided by the time step to obtain the hydrodynamic force acting on the particle. Namely, the existence and motion of the particle causes fluid flow around the particle, while the flow field caused by the particle determines the particle motion by means of the hydrodynamic force. Therefore, the MPM can be regarded as implementing a quasi-direct numerical simulation over the static computational cells. The lift force acting on a spherical particle in a shear flow is a purely hydrodynamic force caused by the flow field around the particle. It is expected, therefore, that the MPM could predict the lift force effect without any additional model. At first, it is shown that the MPM is capable of predicting particle migration away from the wall of a straight microchannel due to the lift force. In a curved microchannel, subsequently, the particle trajectories from representative release points predicted by the MPM are compared to those predicted by a common particle tracking method without any lift force model. The MPM predicted that the particle trajectories are confined in the outer region of the channel cross-section. On the other hand, the circulating trajectories predicted by the tracking method tend to expand due to centrifugal force caused by the Dean vortices. It is concluded, therefore, that the lift force due to the steep shear rate is a significant factor to cause particle separation in a curved microchannel. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.