Title: Inertial micromixing in curved serpentine micromixers with different curvature angles

Biography:

Rana Altay is studying in Sabanci University, Turkey.

Abstract

Micromixing is a crucial component of microfluidic systems which require mixing reagent molecules, fluids, or species for chemical reactions, which has applications in biomedical systems, chemical reactors, and polymerization . In this study, three curved serpentine micromixers consisting of ten segments with curvature angles of 180°, 230°, and 280° were fabricated to investigate the effects of curvature angle on inertial micromixing of two fluids. In this regard, water and diluted Rhodamine B solution were pumped into the micromixers over flow rates of 400-3000μL/min. To characterize and compare the mixing performance of the micromixers and to understand the underlying mechanisms, fluorescent intensity maps and mixing indeces were utilized. According to the results, up to the Reynolds number of 150, the mixing performance of the micromixers with curvature angles of 180° and 230° was similar to each other. While the micromixer having segments with 280° curvature angle showed higher mixing index values and thus outperformed the other two micromixers. This was due to severe distortion of flow streamlines by Dean vortices and occurrence of chaotic advection.