An Efficient Passive Planar Micromixer with Finshaped Baffles in the Tee Channel for Wide Reynolds Number Flow Range
A new design of a planar passive T-micromixer with fin-shaped baffles in the mixing channel is presented. The mixing efficiency and the level of pressure loss in the channel have been investigated by numerical simulations in the range of Reynolds number (Re) 1 to 50. A Mixing index (Mi) has been defined to quantify the mixing efficiency, which results over 85% at both ends of the Re range, what demonstrates the micromixer can enhance mixing using the mechanisms of diffusion (lower Re) and convection (higher Re). Three geometric dimensions: radius of baffle, baffles pitch and height of the channel define the design parameters, and the mixing index and pressure loss are the performance parameters used to optimize the micromixer geometry with a multi-criteria optimization method. The Pareto front of designs with the optimum trade-offs, maximum mixing index with minimum pressure loss, is obtained. Experiments for qualitative and quantitative validation have been implemented.
[1] Stone H. A., Stroock A. D. and Ajdari A. (2004). Engineering flows in
small devices: microfluidics toward a lab-on-a-chip. Annu. Rev. Fluid.
Mech. 36: 381-411.
[2] Hansen C. and Quake S. R. (2003). Microfluidics in structural biology:
smaller, faster, better. Curr. Opin. Strc. Biol. 13: 538-544.
[3] Ottino J. M., 1989. The kinematics of mixing: stretching, chaos and
transport. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
[4] Nguyen N. and Wu Z. (2005). Micromixers-a review. Journal of
Micromechanics and Microengineering 15, R1-R16.
[5] Hessel V., Lowe H. and Schonfeld F. (2005). Micromixers, a review on
passive and active mixing principles. Chem. Eng. Sci. 60, 2479-2501.
[6] Liu R. H., Stremler M. A., Sharp K. V., Olsen M. G., Santiago J. G.,
Adrian R. J., Aref H. and Beebe D. J. (2000). Passive Mixing in a
Three-Dimensional Serpentine Microchannel. Journal of
Microelectromechanical Systems 9 (2), 190-197.
[7] Jen C. P., Wu C. Y., Lin Y. C. and Wu C. Y. (2003). Design and
simulation of the gaseous micromixer with chaotic advection in twisted
microchannels. Lab on a Chip 3: 77-81.
[8] Kim D. S., Lee S. W., Kwon T. H. and Lee S. S. (2004). A barrier
embedded chaotic micromixer. J. Micromech. Microeng. 14: 798-805.
[9] Hong C. C., Choi J. W. and Ahn C. H. (2001). A novel in-plane passive
micromixer using Coanda effect. Proceedings of the ┬ÁTAS 2001
Symposium, California, USA, pp. 31-33.
[10] Wong S. H., Bryant P., Ward M. and Wharton C. (2003). Investigation
of mixing in a cross-shaped micromixer with static mixing elements for
reaction kinetics studies. Sens. Actuators B 95: 414-424.
[11] Bhagat A. A. S., Peterson E. T. K. and Papautsky I. (2007). A passive
planar micromixer with obstructions for mixing at low Reynolds
numbers. J. Micromech. Microeng. 17: 1017-1024.
[12] Wu Z. and Nguyen N. Y. (2005). Convective-diffusive transport in
parallel lamination micromixers. Microfluid. Nanofluid. 1: 208-217.
[13] Ducree J., Brenner T., Haeberle S., Glatzel T. and Zengerle R. (2006).
Multilamination of flows in planar networks of rotating microchannels.
Microfluid. Nanofluid. 2: 78-84.
[14] Cortes-Quiroz C. A., Zangeneh M. and Goto A. (2009). On multiobjective
optimization of geometry of staggered herringbone
micromixer. Microfluid. Nanofluid. 7 (1), 29-43.
[15] ANSYS Europe Ltd., 2007. CFX 11.0 User Manual.
[16] Danckwerts P. V. (1952). The definition and measurement of some
characteristics of mixtures. Appl. Sci. Res. A 3, 279-296.
[17] Taguchi G. (1987). Systems of Experimental Design, Vols. 1 and 2.
New York: Kraus International.
[18] Kansa E. J. (1999). Motivation for using radial basis function to solve
PDE's (unpublished paper), in http://rbf-pde.uah.edu/kansaweb.html,
accessed on Aug 22nd, 2007.
[19] Deb K., Agrawal A., Pratap T. and Meyarivan T. (2000). A fast and
elitist multi-objective genetic algorithm for multi-objective
optimization: NSGA-II. Proceedings of the Parallel Problem Solving
from Nature VI Conference, pp. 849-858, Paris, France, 2000.
[1] Stone H. A., Stroock A. D. and Ajdari A. (2004). Engineering flows in
small devices: microfluidics toward a lab-on-a-chip. Annu. Rev. Fluid.
Mech. 36: 381-411.
[2] Hansen C. and Quake S. R. (2003). Microfluidics in structural biology:
smaller, faster, better. Curr. Opin. Strc. Biol. 13: 538-544.
[3] Ottino J. M., 1989. The kinematics of mixing: stretching, chaos and
transport. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
[4] Nguyen N. and Wu Z. (2005). Micromixers-a review. Journal of
Micromechanics and Microengineering 15, R1-R16.
[5] Hessel V., Lowe H. and Schonfeld F. (2005). Micromixers, a review on
passive and active mixing principles. Chem. Eng. Sci. 60, 2479-2501.
[6] Liu R. H., Stremler M. A., Sharp K. V., Olsen M. G., Santiago J. G.,
Adrian R. J., Aref H. and Beebe D. J. (2000). Passive Mixing in a
Three-Dimensional Serpentine Microchannel. Journal of
Microelectromechanical Systems 9 (2), 190-197.
[7] Jen C. P., Wu C. Y., Lin Y. C. and Wu C. Y. (2003). Design and
simulation of the gaseous micromixer with chaotic advection in twisted
microchannels. Lab on a Chip 3: 77-81.
[8] Kim D. S., Lee S. W., Kwon T. H. and Lee S. S. (2004). A barrier
embedded chaotic micromixer. J. Micromech. Microeng. 14: 798-805.
[9] Hong C. C., Choi J. W. and Ahn C. H. (2001). A novel in-plane passive
micromixer using Coanda effect. Proceedings of the ┬ÁTAS 2001
Symposium, California, USA, pp. 31-33.
[10] Wong S. H., Bryant P., Ward M. and Wharton C. (2003). Investigation
of mixing in a cross-shaped micromixer with static mixing elements for
reaction kinetics studies. Sens. Actuators B 95: 414-424.
[11] Bhagat A. A. S., Peterson E. T. K. and Papautsky I. (2007). A passive
planar micromixer with obstructions for mixing at low Reynolds
numbers. J. Micromech. Microeng. 17: 1017-1024.
[12] Wu Z. and Nguyen N. Y. (2005). Convective-diffusive transport in
parallel lamination micromixers. Microfluid. Nanofluid. 1: 208-217.
[13] Ducree J., Brenner T., Haeberle S., Glatzel T. and Zengerle R. (2006).
Multilamination of flows in planar networks of rotating microchannels.
Microfluid. Nanofluid. 2: 78-84.
[14] Cortes-Quiroz C. A., Zangeneh M. and Goto A. (2009). On multiobjective
optimization of geometry of staggered herringbone
micromixer. Microfluid. Nanofluid. 7 (1), 29-43.
[15] ANSYS Europe Ltd., 2007. CFX 11.0 User Manual.
[16] Danckwerts P. V. (1952). The definition and measurement of some
characteristics of mixtures. Appl. Sci. Res. A 3, 279-296.
[17] Taguchi G. (1987). Systems of Experimental Design, Vols. 1 and 2.
New York: Kraus International.
[18] Kansa E. J. (1999). Motivation for using radial basis function to solve
PDE's (unpublished paper), in http://rbf-pde.uah.edu/kansaweb.html,
accessed on Aug 22nd, 2007.
[19] Deb K., Agrawal A., Pratap T. and Meyarivan T. (2000). A fast and
elitist multi-objective genetic algorithm for multi-objective
optimization: NSGA-II. Proceedings of the Parallel Problem Solving
from Nature VI Conference, pp. 849-858, Paris, France, 2000.
@article{"International Journal of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Sciences:56308", author = "C. A. Cortes-Quiroz and A. Azarbadegan and E. Moeendarbary", title = "An Efficient Passive Planar Micromixer with Finshaped Baffles in the Tee Channel for Wide Reynolds Number Flow Range", abstract = "A new design of a planar passive T-micromixer with fin-shaped baffles in the mixing channel is presented. The mixing efficiency and the level of pressure loss in the channel have been investigated by numerical simulations in the range of Reynolds number (Re) 1 to 50. A Mixing index (Mi) has been defined to quantify the mixing efficiency, which results over 85% at both ends of the Re range, what demonstrates the micromixer can enhance mixing using the mechanisms of diffusion (lower Re) and convection (higher Re). Three geometric dimensions: radius of baffle, baffles pitch and height of the channel define the design parameters, and the mixing index and pressure loss are the performance parameters used to optimize the micromixer geometry with a multi-criteria optimization method. The Pareto front of designs with the optimum trade-offs, maximum mixing index with minimum pressure loss, is obtained. Experiments for qualitative and quantitative validation have been implemented.
", keywords = "Computational fluids dynamics, fin-shaped baffle, mixing strategies, multi-objective optimization, passive micromixer.", volume = "4", number = "1", pages = "38-6", }
