245
Views
16
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

On the computational analysis of short mixing length planar split and recombine micromixers for microfluidic applications

ORCID Icon
Pages 79-94 | Received 23 Jul 2019, Accepted 22 Aug 2019, Published online: 19 Sep 2019
 

ABSTRACT

Micromixers are one of the prominent devices in applications like Lab-On-A-Chip (LOC), micro-total analysis system (µTAS), etc. The performance of micromixer is governed by geometry of micromixer, type of obstructions like baffles, obstacles introduced in the fluid flow. In this paper, the mixing performance for three types of baffle-based split and recombination planar passive micromixers is analysed using numerical simulation. The three design configurations, namely, square baffle-based split and recombination (SB-SAR), circular baffle-based split and recombination (CB-SAR) and triangular baffle-based split and recombination (TB-SAR) micromixers are considered. In-depth flow physics analysis was carried out to assess and affirm the quantitative results of the mixing quality at Reynolds number in the range of 0.1–60. The mixing index is found to be 1.0 at Re = 0.1 for SB-SAR micromixer and 0.80 at Re ≥ 10 for all the micromixer design configurations. Micromixers showed diffusion-dominated mixing mechanism at Re = 0.1, and chaotic advection dominated mixing mechanism at Re ≥ 30. The advantages of rapid mixing, simple geometry and shortest mixing length make these micromixers more encouraging in chemical, biochemical and medical applications.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Prof. Dr. Pravin S. Kachare for helping in careful editing of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.