Optimization of Mixing in an Active Micromixing Device

G. Mathew, I. Mezic, R. Serban and L. Petzold
University of California, Santa Barbara, US

Keywords: Micromixing, chaotic advection

Abstract:
Microscale mixers can be divided into two broad classifications - passive and active. Passive mixers rely on geometric properties of the channel shape whereas active mixers rely on time-dependent perturbation of the fluid flow to achieve mixing. In this work, we consider the problem of characterizing the mixing performance of an active micromixer which consists of a main mixing channel within which the flow is perturbed by pressure-driven flow from three pairs of orthogonal secondary channels. Using the newly developed measure of mixing, the so-called ``Mix-Norm'', we study optimal values for the frequency and amplitude of the oscillating flow in the secondary channels. It is shown that with one side channel operating regions of poor mixing parameter values interlay with good mixing parameter values and that for the second and third channels mixing is good for a large range of parameter values.

Nanotech 2004 Conference Technical Program Abstract