The present study investigates deformable spherical gel particles that were packed in a column to separate silica particles. Spherical dimethylacrylamide gel particles with a mean diameter of 40 mu m were polymerized in a water-in-oil suspension. The pressure loss during water permeation at varying flow rates of 10-50 mL h(-1) through the gel-packed column at various heights was determined. The pressure loss increased exponentially with an increase in permeation time. This exponential increment is attributed to a deformation of the gel particles. Suspensions that contain silica particles with diameters of 0.12, 1.0, or 10 mu m flowed, which indicates that larger silica particles were trapped within gaps of the packed gel at the top of the column; whereas, smaller particles were trapped within gaps of the deformed gel at the bottom of the column. The deformation pitch of gel particles that were packed in a column had a distribution in the flow direction to achieve particle separation at each position in a flowing silica-particle suspension.