장애물을 이용한 Y-채널 마이크로 믹서의 혼합개선

Abstract

Mixing improvement is an essential task in microfluidic applications since mixing is entirely governed by molecular diffusion transport at this scale and it thus proceeds downstream very slowly. In this work, we numerically investigate the effect of obstacle configuration on mixing efficiency. Before the analysis, the unstructured grid CFD method for concentration transport is validated by the simulation of flows in uniform microchannel. The solutions well correspond to exact solutions. Next, mixing in a Y-channel micromixer with obstacles is numerically investigated. From the simulations, the mixing efficiency appears to be proportional to the magnitude of the formation of lateral velocity component. It is also shown that the asymmetric layout and radius enlargement of obstacles greatly improves mixing efficiency and thereby optimum configuration of the micromixer may be obtained with the aid of design optimization.