Peter B Howell Jr et al 2008 J. Micromech. Microeng. 18 115019 doi:10.1088/0960-1317/18/11/115019
Peter B Howell Jr1, David R Mott2, Frances S Ligler1, Joel P Golden1, Carolyn R Kaplan2 and Elaine S Oran2
Show affiliationsA new computational approach to the modeling and design of efficient microfluidic mixers is demonstrated. The mixers created provide far more rapid mixing than previous designs. A set of mixer components is created and mapped using a traditional Navier–Stokes fluid solver. The maps are used to quickly model the effect each component has on the lateral distribution of species in the channel. For a mixer of a given length, all the possible combinations of components can be evaluated, and the best mixer for a given metric can be found. Although the mixers presented in this study are short (length-to-width ratios below 8), they show degrees of mixing comparable to much longer mixers found in the literature.
85.85.+j Micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) and devices
Issue 11 (November 2008)
Received 5 December 2007, in final form 8 February 2008
Published 7 October 2008
Peter B Howell Jr et al 2008 J. Micromech. Microeng. 18 115019
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