Numerical simulation of centrifugal serpentine micromixers and analyzing mixing quality parameters

Abstract

Centrifugal microfluidics or the Lab on a CD (LOCD) has developed vast applications in biomedical researches and analyses. Fluid mixing is an application of the LOCD. In this paper, multiple centrifugal micromixers were simulated. Various parameters were originally presumed to have an effect on mixing performance. These parameters include inlet angle, angular velocity, cross-sectional profile, perpendicular length ratio and the number of channels in series. They were each analyzed through simulations. It was gathered that the inlet angle does not significantly affect the mixing quality. Increasing angular velocity steadily increases mixing quality for all geometries. The vertical triangular cross section gives the best mixing quality and the horizontal rectangular cross section has the worst. Also both increasing the perpendicular length ratio and adding an additional microchannel in series to the original, enhances mixing.

Numerical Simulation for efficient mixing of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids in an electro-osmotic micro-mixer

“…Furthermore, remarkable mixing quality has been achieved for the biological fluids using the proposed model which would make it appropriate for all biological applications. Of particular interest is the experimental implementation of the studied micro mixer, details of which will be addressed in our future studies based on this study and our previous numerical simulations [25][26][27]. …”

A Review on Micromixers

“…Centrifugal forces can also enhance mixing and has been used in lots of micromixers [ 87 , 88 , 89 ]. Haeberle et al [ 90 ] reported a centrifugal micromixer, relying on the Coriolis force induced by the rotated plate to drive and mix the fluids ( Figure 10 a).…”

Mixing Optimization in Grooved Serpentine Microchannels

“…Aside from a proven ability to reach the necessary mixing quality, passive designs benefit from being accessible to a variety of fabrication methods including soft lithography [39,40], 3D printing [41], and molecular imprinting [42]. This, together with accurate computational modeling of the fluid and reactant dynamics in these devices accessible through a variety of popular CFD packages, has enabled an efficient pipeline for the design, optimization, prototyping, and testing of passive mixers [33,[43][44][45].…”