We use the cellular-automaton Duke--Rubinstein model to simulate gel electrophoresis of DNA in periodically changing electric field. The field is dichotomic and its time average is zero. We observe non-vanishing current of molecules, what is known as the ratchet effect. We calculate the drift velocity and the diffusion coefficient for large field amplitude, where nonlinear effects can be observed. The results indicate that tuning the amplitude and frequency of the applied field for a given range of the molecule length can improve the resolving power of the separation of DNA.

PACS numbers: 87.15.Tt, 05.10.Ln, 83.10.Kn