Mixing performance of a planar micromixer with circular obstructions in a curved microchannel

A numerical investigation of the mixing and fluid flow in a new design of passive micromixer employing several cylindrical obstructions within a curved microchannel is presented in this work. Mixing in the channels is analyzed using Navier–Stokes equations and the diffusion equation between two working fluids (water and ethanol) for Reynolds numbers from 0.1 to 60. The proposed micromixer shows far better mixing performance than a T-micromixer with circular obstructions and a simple curved micromixer. The effects of cross-sectional shape, height, and placement of the obstructions on mixing performance and the pressure drop of the proposed micromixer are evaluated.     

Numerical simulation of mixing process in T-shaped and DT-shaped micromixers

Recently, numerous studies have been done on the micro- and nano-scale equipment because of their importance and wide range of application. Micromixers are among the equipment in which two or more fluids are mixed and have applications in the processes, such as chemical synthesis. In this research, a numerical investigation using finite volume approach is done on mixing two incompressible fluids in 3D mixers with T- and double-T-(DT) shaped geometries in the range of Reynolds numbers 75–400. One of the important parameters for the quantitative analysis of the mixing performance of micromixers is the mixing index. So, the effects of different geometries, Reynolds number and channel length on this parameter are studied. The results show that, at different Reynolds numbers, the mixing index of fluids in the DT-shaped channel with 90° is less than the corresponding one in T-shaped mixers because changing the flow regime occurs at higher Reynolds numbers in the DT-shaped channels. The amount of mixing index increases by decreasing the angle of branches in the DT-shaped channel. It is observed that the mixing index of fluids increases along the channel, which tends to a constant value far away from the inlet.     

Mixing Characteristics of High-Viscosity Fluids under Forced Vertical Vibration

The mixing characteristics of two initially stratified high-viscosity fluids with a free surface under forced vertical vibration were studied experimentally and numerically. The flow characteristics and dynamics of the free surface and interface between liquids were analyzed and the effects of the vibration parameters on the mixing process were evaluated. The degree of mixing was determined by the frequency and amplitude of vibration. Effective mixing could not be achieved by merely using the deformation of the free surface because of the low fluidity of high-viscosity fluids. However, an increase in vibration intensity disintegrated the free surface and interface, thereby significantly promoting the mixing of fluids and improving the mixing efficiency.     

3种被动式微混合器的性能对比及压损分析

通过数值模拟的方法对3种不同结构的被动式微混合器进行了研究,同时对3种被动式微混合器的混合性能进行了对比,并进一步研究了微混合器的压力损失。结果显示,内肋形微混合器在5种速度条件下的混合性能要优于其他两种微混合器,而且随着流量越来越大,其压力损失也越来越大;内肋形微混合器的压力损失最大,Z形微混合器的次之,Y形微混合器的最小。     

Experimental study on oscillating feedback micromixer for miscible liquids using the Coanda Effect

An oscillating feedback micromixer with no moving parts comprises an inlet channel, a diverging mixing chamber, a splitter, two feedback channels, and an outlet channel. Using the Coanda effect, two liquids are passively mixed in an oscillating feedback micromixer. Three oscillating feedback micromixers were experimentally investigated using two miscible liquids. The first had asymmetric feedback channels and a splitter, the second had symmetric feedback channels and a splitter, and the third had symmetric feedback channels and no splitter. Three chaotic mixing modes—vortex mixing, internal recirculation mixing, and oscillating mixing—were observed with increasing Reynolds numbers. The asymmetric oscillating feedback micromixer was determined to have the best mixing performance among the three micromixers. The splitter and asymmetric feedback channels can facilitate internal recirculation through feedback channels and fluidic oscillation, thereby enhancing the mixing efficiency. A completed mixing was achieved in the asymmetric micromixer. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 1054–1063, 2015     

Use of an areal distribution of mixing intensity to describe blending of non‐newtonian fluids in a kenics KM static mixer using PLIF

The performance of KM static mixers has been assessed for the blending of Newtonian and time‐independent non‐Newtonian fluids using planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF). A stream of dye is injected at the mixer inlet and the distribution of dye at the mixer outlet is analyzed from images obtained across the pipe cross section. The effect of number of mixing elements, fluid rheology, and apparent viscosity ratio for two‐fluid blending have been investigated at constant mixture superficial velocity of 0.3 m s^?1. Aqueous solutions of glycerol and Carbopol 940 are used as the working fluids, the latter possessing Herschel–Bulkley rheology. The PLIF images have been analyzed to determine log variance and maximum striation thickness to represent the intensity and scale of segregation, respectively. Conflicting trends are revealed in the experiments, leading to the development of an areal‐based distribution of mixing intensity. For two‐fluid blending, the addition of a high viscosity stream into the lower viscosity main flow causes very poor mixing performance, with unmixed spots of this component observable in the PLIF image. © 2013 The Authors AIChE Journal published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 60: 332–342, 2014     

Micromixer-assisted polymerization processes

Mixing in polymerization processes is an extremely important issue as uneven mixing inevitably leads to the synthesis of polymer with undesired characteristics. On the other hand, microeaction technology has enabled the development of extremely efficient micromixers which, within typical few milliseconds, allow mixing fluids at the microscale level. Recent developments in polymerization reaction engineering include the use of such micromixers to mix either initial reactants or reactive viscous solutions in multistep processes. Thus, polymers with improved control over their molecular weights and molecular weight distributions, chemical compositions and architectures can be synthesized. Micromixers can also be used to open new operating windows in which controlled polymerization can be performed faster or under less stringent reaction conditions.     

Impact of fluid path geometry and operating parameters on l/l-dispersion in interdigital micromixers

The dispersion of two immiscible fluids in interdigital micromixers was investigated using silicon oil/water and n-heptane/water as test systems. The experiments revealed the dependence of the average droplet size and size distribution on geometrical parameters of the micromixer and operating conditions. The mean droplet size was found to be correlated with total volume flow, volume flow ratio and corresponding pressure drop of the two liquids for a given micromixer geometry, which could be explained in light of the energy input. As a major focus, the effect of mixing chamber geometry and feeding system geometry was investigated with regard to droplet size distribution by systematically varying decisive dimensions in the mixer and by changing the feeding structure. It was shown that reducing the slit height and the number of feeding channels had a significant effect on droplet size distribution, leading to a smaller mean droplet size. Furthermore, the dispersion efficiency was also investigated by an extraction process.     

Dimensionless number for identification of flow patterns inside a T-micromixer

Results are presented from a numerical study examining the flow dynamics of the liquid phase inside T-type micromixers. The main aim of the study was to determine an identification number for the differentiation of the different flow regimes in the liquid phase in T-type micromixers. The critical value for the identification number at which the transition from vortex flow to engulfment flow occurs was obtained. The results were used to optimize the geometrical parameters and the operating conditions to achieve high mixing performance for the liquid phase in T-type micromixers. The model results were found to be consistent with experimental data for different T-mixers available in the literature.     

Computational Fluid Dynamic Simulation of Liquid-Liquid Mixing in a Static Double-T-shaped Micromixer

The laminar flow structure and mixing performance of T-shaped and double-T-shaped micromixers with rectangular cross-section have been investigated using computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation. FLUENT software is used to evaluate the mixing efficiency. The numerical simulation results show that the presented double-T-micromixer is highly efficient over T-shaped micromixer. The performance of double-T-micromixer with and without static mixing elements (SME) is also investigated. The enhancement in mixing performance is thought to be caused by the generation of eddies and lateral velocity component when the mixture flows through these elements. Mixing efficiency as higher as 97% is reached within a mixing length of 320 mm downstream from the first T-junction with the enhancement of three SMEs.     

Characterization of the Mixing Quality in Micromixers

The laminar flow patterns and mixing performance of two different micromixers have been investigated and quantified using CFD. The micromixer geometries consist of a channel with either diagonal or asymmetric herringbone grooves on the channel floor. The numerical results show that a single helical flow is produced for the diagonal mixer, whereas the herringbone mixer creates a double helical flow, composed of an alternating large and small vortex. Particle tracking of a tracer shows that very little convective mixing occurs in the diagonal mixer. However, in the herringbone mixer, very good mixing occurs. Quantitative analysis methods that are traditionally used for characterizing macro‐scale static mixers have been employed. Calculation of the variance of tracer dispersion and the stretching has shown to be well adapted for quantifying the mixing in the micromixers. However, methods based on the deformation rate appear to be less suitable. The results are in excellent agreement with previous experimental findings.     

管板结构脉动热管冷却动力电池的传热特性

开发经济、高效和可靠的电动汽车电池冷却方案是其大规模商业化过程中需要解决的关键问题之一。本文提出并设计了一种对动力电池进行热管理的管板结构脉动热管装置,选用乙醇、水及两者二元混合物为工质,对不同加热功率、充液率和乙醇-水混合比下脉动热管的传热特性进行了实验研究。结果表明,使用乙醇-水混合工质的脉动热管表现出更好的启动和传热性能。在充液率为30%、加热功率为48W时,电池的平均温度可以控制为44℃;电池的表面平均温差可低至1.5℃,表现出较好的均温性。对乙醇-水二元混合工质强化脉动热管传热的机理分析表明,两者具有的互补热物性特征和热管内部混合工质浓度梯度引起的逆Marangoni流是改善脉动热管传热性能的主要原因。     

Evaluation of the mixing performance of three passive micromixers

This work presents a numerical investigation on mixing and flow structures in microchannels with different geometries: zig-zag; square-wave; and curved. To conduct the investigation, geometric parameters, such as the cross-section of the channel, channel height, axial length of the channel, and number of pitches, are kept constant for all three cases. Analyses of mixing and flow fields have been carried out for a wide range – 0.267–267 – of the Reynolds number. Mixing in the channels has been analyzed by using Navier–Stokes equations with two working fluids, water and ethanol. The results show that the square-wave microchannel yields the best mixing performance, and the curved and the zig-zag microchannels show nearly the same performance for most Reynolds number. For all three cases, the pressure drop has been calculated for channels with equal streamwise lengths. The curved channel exhibits the smallest pressure drop among the microchannels, while the pressure drops in the square-wave and zig-zag channels are approximately the same.     

Electrokinetic mixing of two fluids with equivalent conductivity

Electrokinetic (EK) micromixers have been widely studied in the past decade for biochemical applications, biological and chemical analysis, etc. Unfortunately, almost all EK mixers require different electrical conductivity between the two fluids to be mixed, which has greatly limited their wide applications, in cases where the two streams to be mixed have equivalent electrical conductivity. Here we show that mixing enhancement between two fluids with identical conductivity can be achieved in an EK micromixer with conductive sidewalls, where the electric field is in transverse direction of the flow. The results revealed that the mixing became stronger with increased conductivity value. This mixing method provides a novel and convenient strategy for mixing two liquids with the same or similar electrical conductivity in microfluidic systems, and could potentially serves as a powerful tool for sample preparation in applications such as liquid biopsy, and environmental monitoring, etc.     

A study on the micromixing performance in microreactors for polymer solutions

Microreactors are widely applied for various polymerization processes to produce polymers with controlled molecular weight and structures. In this work, the mixing of polymer solutions in capillary microreactors was investigated with the aid of the biazo‐coupling reaction system and high‐speed camera. A smaller inner diameter, a higher Dean number and a lower Torsion number could promote the micromixing performance in microreactors. Unlike the mixing of Newtonian fluids in microreactors or micromixers, the mixing of polymer solutions follows different mechanisms and it is more difficult to reach homogeneous condition. However, the good micromixing performance in capillary microreactor systems for polymer solutions still could be obtained with high shear rates and long enough capillary length at relatively high correlated Reynolds numbers (N_Re > 29). Furthermore, the micromixing time in the capillary microreactors was evaluated based on a modified stretching efficiency model and its value was in the range of 0.1–8.0 ms. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 64: 3479–3490, 2018     

Fluids mixing in devices with connected-groove channels

A novel connected-groove micromixer (CGM) has been designed, fabricated, and investigated thoroughly. Connected grooves in this device, crossing multiple sides of the microchannel induced an intensely transverse field of fluids, and thus generating rapid mixing than patterned grooves on a single side alone. The fabrication of a CGM was facilitated to overcome the complication of fabricating the sidewall and bottom grooves in a channel simultaneously; a CGM hence became highly efficient and compact. We propose here CGM of two types—CGM-1 and CGM-2—and compare their mixing performance with a slanted-groove micromixer (SGM) numerically and experimentally for Re over a wide range (1-100). Numerical analysis demonstrated that a CGM provided intense transverse components in the field and great mixing efficiency; in particular, CGM-2 with co-rotating flows encompassing the mechanisms of cutting and blending of fluids had a mixing performance over 50% better than an SGM for Re=1-100. To systematically analyze the mixing by experiments, mixing of slightly viscous fluids, highly viscous fluids, and bio-fluids were adopted, respectively. The mixing experiments of slightly viscous dye solutions on the basis of the color uniformity of mixture showed that mixing lengths of both CGM were smaller than that of SGM. Based on the mixing results of highly viscous fluids, CGM-1 with sidewall grooves had a shorter pitch of spiral flow and more helical turns than an SGM. With a confocal microscope we explored the mixing sections of fluorescent proteins (B-phycoerythrin, BPE; Allophycocyanin alpha subunit, ApcA) inside a micromixer to confirm the numerical results.     

Gas/liquid dispersion in a sequential split micromixer

Two different types of split–recombine micromixers have been tested for a gas/liquid dispersion. Mixing performances of two micromixers have been compared in terms of a mixing efficiency. The effects of liquid flow rates, the ratio of gas/liquid flow rate, bubble sizes, and bubble size distributions have been investigated. The sequential split micromixer and the caterpillar micromixer showed a consistent mixing performance at various flow rates. The sequential split micromixer has shown the smaller and narrower bubble size distribution than that of the caterpillar micromixer at a higher flow rate of 1.8 L/h.     

Residence-time distribution as a measure of mixing in T-junction and multilaminated/elongational flow micromixers

The ineffective mixing in microchannel mixers or reactors, primarily due to the laminar flow behavior in such microfluidic devices, has become an issue of significant interest to many researchers working in the field of microreaction engineering and related disciplines. The present study describes the numerical and experimental investigation of mixing performance in a proposed multilaminated/elongational flow micromixer (herein referred to as MEFM-4) and a standard T-junction micromixer (TjM). These two micromixers that employ different mixing enhancement strategies were fabricated from silicon using micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach was first used to establish the experimental platform for the mixing study. Tracer experiment utilizing UV–vis absorption spectroscopy detection technique was used to obtain the required concentration data for residence-time distribution (RTD) analysis. The RTD and its coefficient of variation (CoV) were used for indirect characterization of flow and mixing behavior in the micromixers. Using this measure, the proposed MEFM-4, as expected, exhibits a better mixing performance (with its narrower RTD and lower CoV values) than the standard TjM. The comparison of results from the CFD simulation and the experiment shows very good agreement, especially in the low Reynolds number flow regime (Re<29). In combination with matching experiment and advanced microfabrication techniques, CFD simulation is a powerful tool for effective design and evaluation of simple to complex microfluidic devices for useful applications in chemical analysis and synthesis.     

Laminar Fluid Mixing in Micromixers: Description of Pull-Push Effects

A numerical study was performed on laminar mixing of fluids by means of embedded microbarriers against the flow direction in two three-dimensional T-micromixers. Two microchannels with different obstacle arrangements were considered, and the effect of volumetric flow rate Q on two-stream pull-push motion was investigated. With increasing Q and distance of the barriers to the sidewalls K, different vortices and fluid movement patterns develop in the two micromixers. Maximum mass transfer is obtained for the micromixer with smaller K value. With decreasing K, pull-push movement strongly affects fluid merging, and the quality of mixing increases. Moreover, the effect of fluid tortuosity was studied, and a direct relationship between hydrodynamic fluid tortuosity and mass transfer was found.     

Foundations of laminar chaotic mixing and spectral theory of linear operators

This article addresses the potentiality and the range of application of the spectral theory of mixing as a simple and objective way to define in a rigorous way mixing performance and stirring efficiency. Attention is mainly oriented to the class of laminar flows which is the typical condition occurring in micromixers and flow microdevices. The application of the theory is highlighted by considering the cavity flow as a case study.