A novel design for passive micromixer based on Cantor fractal structure

Microsystem Technologies - This paper presents a simple and convenient rectangular fractal micromixer, called imitate Cantor structure (ICS). According to the principle of enhancing chaotic...     

Design and numerical study on a novel micromixer based on Cantor fractal structure

Microsystem Technologies - The application of micromixer in many fields is becoming more and more important, and lots of researchers have proposed different designs. In this paper, in order to...     

A novel design for 3D passive micromixer based on Cantor fractal structure

In this paper, we design a three-dimensional micromixer based on Cantor structure. According to the principle of enhancing chaotic advection and folding fluid, it can produce better mixing performance. First we design the fractal obstacle based on the Cantor structure. We combine the obstacle with the T type microchannel. And we get multiple combinations of microchannel. We use multi-physics field simulation software COMSOL 5.2a to simulation, which is based on finite element theory. Then we analyze the mixing performance of the Imitate Cantor structure micromixer, x stands for the height of the micromixer (ICSM_x) in the Re of 0.01–100 and explain the mechanisms of mixing enhancement in each structure. We compare the effect of the height of the obstacles, the effect of the spacing between the obstacles, and the effect of fractal obstacles series. By comparison, when Re is more than 50 or less than 0.1, the mixing efficiency of all micromixer can reach above 90%. Finally, we obtain a best micromixer, called Imitate Cantor structure micromixer with height 600 µm (ICSM₆₀₀). The minimum mixing efficiency of ICSM₆₀₀ can reach 85%, so the mixing efficiency of ICSM₆₀₀ is clearly better than others.

     

微流控芯片中电渗流的数值模拟与仿真研究

从电渗流形成的基本理论入手,推导了电场和流场双物理场耦合的控制方程.运用多物理场数值计算分析软件建立了长为1000μm,宽为100μm的二维流道,在微流道中间250~750μm的区域施加了直流电压,并在数值模拟中还原了微流道内壁和微流体的物理属性,计算得出了各段流体的速度场,进而得出了各段流体的流型.通过二维流道压力分布分析了微流道中各段产生不同流型的原因.对微流控芯片中的电动流动的功能原理分析及优化设计具有借鉴意义.     

Experimental study of fabricating a four-layers Cantor fractal microfluidic chip by CO2 laser system

Microsystem Technologies - In this paper, we design a four-layers Cantor fractal microfluidic chip and study suitable materials and parameters to fabricate the microfluidic chip. The effect of...     

Evolution of mixing in a microfluidic reverse-staggered herringbone micromixer

Microfluidic platforms offer a variety of advantages including improved heat transfer, low working volumes, ease of scale-up, and stronger user control on operating parameters. However, flow within microfluidic channels occurs at low Reynolds number (Re), which makes mixing difficult to accomplish. Adding V-shaped ridges to channel walls, a pattern called the staggered herringbone design (SHB), alleviates this problem by introducing transverse flow patterns that enable enhanced mixing. Building on our prior work, we here developed a microfluidic mixer utilizing the SHB geometry and characterized using CFD simulations and complimentary experiments. Specifically, we investigated the performance of this type of mixer for unequal species diffusivities and inlet flows. A channel design with SHB ridges was simulated in COMSOL Multiphysics® software under a variety of operating conditions to evaluate its mixing capabilities. The device was fabricated using soft-lithography techniques to experimentally visualize the mixing process. Mixing within the device was enabled by injecting fluorescent dyes through the device and imaging using a confocal microscope. The device was found to efficiently mix fluids rapidly, based on both simulations and experiments. Varying Re or species diffusion coefficients had a weak effect on the mixing profile, due to the laminar flow regime and insufficient residence time, respectively. Mixing effectiveness increased as the species flow rate ratio increased. Fluid flow patterns visualized in confocal microscope images for selective cases were strikingly similar to CFD results, suggesting that the simulations serve as good predictors of device performance. This SHB mixer design would be a good candidate for further implementation as a microfluidic reactor.     

Numerical simulation of electroosmotic effect in serpentine channels

Numerical simulation of flow through a three-dimensional serpentine microchannel, subjected to a voltage perpendicular to the flow direction is presented here. Commercial CFD software CFD-ACE+ is used for the numerical analysis. A parametric study is conducted to investigate the effect of radius of curvature, Reynolds number, zeta potential and Debye length on the pressure drop and friction factor. Each case is compared with flow without electroosmotic effect. It is found that electroosmosis induces secondary flow patterns in the straight portion of the channel in addition to secondary vortices at bends. This electroosmosis-induced secondary flow causes additional pressure drop as compared to flow without electroosmosis. For flow with and without electroosmosis, the pressure drop increases with Reynolds number and the nature of variation is qualitatively similar in both the cases. It is also found that the pressure drop increases as the Debye length is reduced.     

Design,simulation and experiment of electroosmotic microfluidic chip for cell sorting

A microfluidic cell sorting chip has been developed using micromachining technology, where electroosmotic flow (EOF) is exploited to drive and switch cells. For this electroosmotically driven system, it is found that the effect of induced hydrostatic pressure caused by unequal levels in solution reservoirs is not negligible. In this work, the numerical simulation of EOF and opposing pressure induced flow in microchannels is presented and the velocity profiles in the microchannels are measured experimentally using microparticle imaging velocimetry (PIV) system. The result shows that the final resulting velocity is the superposition of the two flows. A total volume of 0.305 μl is transported in the 50 μm microchannel and the back flow occurs after 240 s transportation. The task of sorting cells is realized at the switching structure by adjusting the electric fields in the microchannels. The performance of the cell sorting chip is optimized by investigating the effect of different switching structures. A Y-junction switching structure with 90° switching angle is highly recommended with simulated leakage distance of 53 μm and switching time of 8 ms.     

DNA ligation using a disposable microfluidic device combined with a micromixer and microchannel reactor

A novel PDMS and glass-based microfluidic device consisting of a micromixer and microreactor for DNA ligation is described in this article. The new passive type planar micromixer is 10.33 mm long and composed of a straight channel integrated with nozzles and pillars, and the microreactor is composed of a serpentine channel. Mixing was enhanced by convective diffusion facilitated by the nozzles and pillars. The performance of the micromixer was analytically simulated and experimentally evaluated. The micromixer showed a good mixing efficiency of 87.7% at a 500 μL/min flow rate (Re = 66.5). DNA ligation was successfully performed using the new microfluidic device, and ligation time was shortened from 4 h to 5 min. When used for on-chip ligation, this new micromixer offers advantages of disposability and portability.     

Design optimization of micromixer with square-wave microchannel on compact disk microfluidic platform

This paper presents a passive micromixer on a compact disk (CD) microfluidic platform that performs plasma mixing function. The driving force of CD microfluidic platform including, the centrifugal force due to the system rotation, the Coriolis force as a function of the rotation angular frequency and velocity of liquid. Numerical simulations are performed to investigate the flow characteristics and mixing performance of three CD microfluidic mixers with square-wave, curved and zig-zag microchannels, respectively. Of the three microchannels, the square-wave microchannel is found to yield the best mixing performance, and is therefore selected for design optimization. Four CD microfluidic micromixers incorporating square-wave PDMS microchannels with different widths in the x- and y-directions are fabricated using conventional photolithography techniques. The mixing performance of the four microchannels is investigated both numerically and experimentally. The results show that given an appropriate specification of the microchannel geometry and a CD rotation speed of 2,000 rpm, a mixing efficiency of more than 93 % can be obtained within 5 s.     

高回流被动式微混合器设计及数值模拟

为了提高混合强度设计了一种高回流被动式微混合器,其反馈通道中的回流延长了混合时间并促进形成涡流,增强了对流和扩散作用。通过优化反馈通道形状和混合腔入口尺寸,该微混合器提升了其回流率和混合强度。利用仿真软件Fluent分析该微混合器的性能,仿真表明对于给定的微混合器其回流率和混合强度仅仅决定于雷诺数,回流率和混合强度均随雷诺数增大而增大。特别地,当雷诺数低至8.3时,仍可在反馈通道中找到回流;当雷诺数为99.6时,回流率达到24%,混合强度则超过60%。通过对反馈通道倾斜角度参数的模拟,该微混合器的回流率和混合强度均有明显提升。     

Numerical simulation of structure response outfitted with a tuned liquid damper

An integrated fluid–structure numerical model has been developed to simulate the response of a single degree of freedom (SDOF) structure outfitted with a Tuned Liquid Damper (TLD). The structure is exposed to random external excitations. A non-linear, two-dimensional, flow model has been developed using the finite-difference method. Unlike most existing flow models, the present model does not include any linearization assumptions; it rather solves the entire nonlinear, moving boundary, flow problem under conditions leading to large interfacial deformations. The free surface has been reconstructed using the volume of fluid method and the donor–acceptor algorithm. The Duhamel integral method has been used to determine the response of the structure. The effectiveness and accuracy of the flow model has been validated using a set of benchmark problems and experimental data. The numerical results of this model have been compared with results of an equivalent TMD model. The present fluid–structure model can be used as a valuable tool for performance evaluation and design of more effective tuned liquid dampers.     

微流体温度控制器的数值模拟与特性分析

为了满足微电子封装过程对器件温度变化的精确控制,提出一种快速升降温的微型流体温度控制器,并采用流体力学软件FLUENT对温度控制器的液体—固体—空气一体化的流动—热传导过程进行数值模拟。在给定进口液体温度变化特征的情况下,通过数值分析考察控制器表面温度对进口液体温度变化的响应特性,包括时间跟随性(传热灵敏度)和温度变化振幅的衰减率(传热效率)。考察了控制器结构尺度、进口液体速度、温度变化波形、周期等参数对温度控制器的特性影响。结果表明:控制器厚度增加,控制器表面温度变化幅值衰减增大;控制器进口流速大,控制器表面温度变化幅值衰减率小;进口液体温度变化周期短,传感器表面温度变化幅值衰减增大;进口温度变化方形波的传热效率大于三角波形;传感器表面温度变化周期与进口温度周期相同,但存在相位差。     

A study on the novel micromixer with chaotic flows

This paper presents the novel micro mixer with chaotic flow using coupling between Lorentz force and the moving force of the electric charge in an electric field. Rapid mixing is essential for μ-TAS technology, but is often difficult to achieve it at low Reynolds numbers in micro-systems. Although it is effective to mix with a stirrer for rapid mixing in a general macro-system, it is very difficult to fabricate it in a microsystem. Because the chaotic flow plays a role as a stirrer in a mixing chamber, the novel mixer is expected to mix more rapidly than existing micro mixers. The mixer not only has a simple structure compared with existing ones but also is able to achieve high mixing efficiency in spite of low power consumption. In order to estimate the efficiency for each mixer, the analytical expression and the computer simulations are performed. The results about the flow directions and the experimental results with mixing visualization are presented. Through the comparison with the mixing experiment using the diffusion process, we confirm that the proposed mixer with a simpler structure is able to achieve higher mixing efficiency.     

Numerical simulation of piezoelectrically agitated surface acoustic waves on microfluidic biochips

Microfluidic biochips are biochemical laboratories on the microscale that are used for genotyping and sequencing in genomics, protein profiling in proteomics, and cytometry in cell analysis. There are basically two classes of such biochips: active devices, where the solute transport on a network of channels on the chip surface is realized by external forces, and passive chips, where this is done using a specific design of the geometry of the channel network. Among the active biochips, current interest focuses on devices whose operational principle is based on piezoelectrically driven surface acoustic waves (SAWs) generated by interdigital transducers placed on the chip surface. In this paper, we are concerned with the numerical simulation of such piezoelectrically agitated SAWs relying on a mathematical model that describes the coupling of the underlying piezoelectric and elastomechanical phenomena. Since the interdigital transducers usually operate at a fixed frequency, we focus on the time-harmonic case. Its variational formulation gives rise to a generalized saddle point problem for which a Fredholm alternative is shown to hold true. The discretization of the time-harmonic surface acoustic wave equations is taken care of by continuous, piecewise polynomial finite elements with respect to a nested hierarchy of simplicial triangulations of the computational domain. The resulting algebraic saddle point problems are solved by blockdiagonally preconditioned iterative solvers with preconditioners of BPX-type. Numerical results are given both for a test problem documenting the performance of the iterative solution process and for a realistic SAW device illustrating the properties of SAW propagation on piezoelectric materials. The first two authors have been supported by the DFG within the Collaborative Research Center SFB 438. The seond author acknowledges further support by the NSF under Grant No. DMS-0411403, Grant No. DMS-0412267 and Grant-No. DMS-0511611.     

含分形特征夹层岩体损伤与断裂过程的数值模拟

针对很难用解析方法描述和分析含分形特征夹层岩体裂纹的萌生、扩展和相互作用全过程的问题,基于岩石破裂过程分析系统RFPA2D,以大尺寸圆柱形砂岩试样为例,建立含天然分形特征夹层岩体的数值模拟模型,用统计强度理论Weibull分布描述试样天然分形特征夹层力学参数;通过设定夹层的节理粗糙度系数(Joint Roughness...     

A novel passive micromixer: lamination in a planar channel system

A novel passive micromixer concept is presented. The working principle is to make a controlled 90° rotation of a flow cross-section followed by a split into several channels; the flow in each of these channels is rotated a further 90° before a recombination doubles the interfacial area between the two fluids. This process is repeated until achieving the desired degree of mixing. The rotation of the flow field is obtained by patterning the channel bed with grooves. The effect of the mixers has been studied using computational fluid mechanics and prototypes have been micromilled in poly(methyl methacrylate). Confocal microscopy has been used to study the mixing. Several micromixers working on the principle of lamination have been reported in recent years. However, they require three-dimensional channel designs which can be complicated to manufacture. The main advantage with the present design is that it is relatively easy to produce using standard microfabrication techniques while at the same time obtaining good lamination between two fluids.     

一种基于多重涡流新型微混合器的设计与实验

设计了一种基于多重涡流的新型微混合器结构.该结构中多个呈反向分布的规则排列的扩张和收缩结构可产生迪恩流与扩张涡流,基于此,可进行高效率的被动式混合.首先阐述了该结构产生内部迪恩流和扩张涡流的机理,并利用COMSOL软件对该结构进行了液流混合过程的三维数值模拟验证,分析了不同流体流速对多重涡流强弱和混合程度的影响.最后制作了该微混合器,利用2种不同的染料进行了混合实验,通过分析样品的混合效果验证了该混合器的性能.仿真和实验结果均表明:该混合器在低输入流速(0.01 μL/s)和高输入流速(7μL/s)下均可实现高效快速的混合,在0.8cm的距离内即可实现完全混合,在输入流速为5 μL/s时最高混合效率可达98.6％.     

Lattice Boltzmann method simulation of electroosmotic stirring in a microscale cavity

The suitable surface modification of microfluidic channels can enable a neutral electrolyte solution to develop an electric double layer (EDL). The ions contained within the EDL can be moved by applying an external electric field, inducing electroosmotic flows (EOFs) that results in associated stirring. This provides a solution for the rapid mixing required for many microfluidic applications. We have investigated EOFs generated by applying a steady electric field across a square cavity that has homogenous electric potentials along its walls. The flowfield is simulated using the lattice Boltzmann method. The extent of mixing is characterized for different electrode configurations and electric field strengths. We find that rapid mixing can be achieved by using this simple configuration which increases with increasing electric field strength. The mixing time for water-soluble organic molecules can be decreased by four orders of magnitude by suitable choice of wall zeta potential and electric field. We dedicate this paper to the memory of our colleagues Professors Kevin Granata and Liviu Librescu who fell tragically on April 16, 2007 while answering their call to serve higher education. They continue to inspire us. AM gratefully acknowledges support from Jadavpur University under the World Bank funded Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme of the Government of India and the hospitality of the Virginia Tech ESM Department where he conducted a portion of this work.     

Numerical simulation of novel gas separation effect in microchannel with a series of oscillating barriers

A free-molecular gas flow through the microchannel with a series of oscillating microbarriers is studied. Barriers are oscillating with high frequency in the plane, perpendicular to the axis of the channel. It is shown that probability of passing through the channel for gas molecules significantly depends on relation of oscillations frequency, molecules thermal speed and distance between barriers. Presented effect can be used for separation of gases with different molecular masses due to discrepancy of their thermal speeds. The nature of this phenomenon is studied for different values of frequencies, characteristic sizes and number of barriers. Special attention is paid to comparison of different laws of gas–surface interactions.