Micromixing in lamellar and spiral channels. Micromixing is a process in which ingredient particles rearrange to form a blend.

Microfluidic mixing is an important process in a number of applications like analysis of DNA and proteins, biosensors, mixing of biological solutions, kinetic studies of liquid phase reactions, etc. Mixing at microscale has been studied extensively to overcome the difficulty of quickly mixing fluid streams without the aid of turbulence. The ability to mix liquids in microchannel networks is fundamentally important in the design of nearly every miniaturized chemical and biochemical analysis system. Here, we show that enhanced micromixing can be achieved in topologically simple and easily fabricated planar 2D microchannels by simply introducing curvature and changes in width in a prescribed manner. The mechanisms that are employed for enhancement of micromixing are categorised into: active and passive mechanisms. Active mixers make use of external electrical or mechanical forces, beyond the energy associated with the flow, to perform mixing. Electro osmosis, ultrasonic effects and variable frequency pumping are some of the active mechanisms. Though these methods produce excellent results, they have complex structures which are difficult to fabricate. On the other hand, passive mixers exploit the characteristics of specific flow fields without the application of external forces. These designs can be easily fabricated. Examples of passive micromixing approaches that have been widely investigated include the following: (i) split-and-recombine strategies where the streams to be mixed are divided or split into multiple channels and redirected along trajectories that allow them to be subsequently reassembled as alternating lamellae yielding exponential reductions in interspecies diffusion length and time scales (4, 1012); and (ii) chaotic strategies where transverse flows are passively generated that continuously expand interfacial area between species through stretching, folding, and breakup processes. The most common approach is to subdivide the flow of the inlet streams and create multiple, parallel mixing points. By dividing the flow and creating multiple, interlaced streams, the rate of diffusional mixing can be greatly increased.

BESSOTH MECHANISM: Bessoth et al did this by creating a series of bifurcations within the channel. The two inlet streams each passed through a series of 4 bifurcations to create 16 separate flow streams, which were then combined in 16 separate and parallel mixing chambers. A similar series of bifurcations, run in reverse, recombined the streams into a single channel with 32 individual flow streams, 16 of each liquid. While this technique is effective, with each bifurcation, the resistance to flow through the channel is increased. The higher pressures require more expensive pumps and more rugged and expensive chips. An added filtration step will also most likely be needed when using real world samples to prevent clogging as the channels become narrower. STROOCK MECHANISM: A second approach is to perturb the laminar flow after the two solutions have been introduced into the same channel. Any perturbation of the flow that creates lateral movement will stretch the interface and increase the rate of mixing. Stroock et al have demonstrated one such system in which the bottom of a channel was patterned with a series of diagonal ridges, which deflected the flow immediately over them. A herringbone pattern molded into the floor of the channel created two opposing recirculations in the channel perpendicular to the direction of flow. This deformed and stretched the interface into a spiral. Several sets of herringbones, offset from one another, further subdivided and deformed the interface and greatly facilitated mixing. The effect on the resistance to flow was minimal when compared to systems that subdivide flow, and there were no constrictions which could be prone to clogging.

Introducing curvature in a microchannel generates a secondary flow motion in the moving fluid in a direction transverse to the axial flow direction. Secondary flows have been exploited to increase the interfacial area for diffusive mixing in passive micromixers. When fluids flow through curvilinear channels, they experience inertial forces acting to direct axial motion and centrifugal forces acting along the radius of curvature. A mismatch of velocity between the fluid in the center and the fluid near the wall region causes secondary flows. Fluid elements at the channel centreline tend to flow outward around the curve and since the channel is enclosed, the fluid near the walls recirculates inward creating two symmetric vortices. The parameters that govern these flows are channel dimensions, radius of curvature and flow rate. To characterise the flow, a dimensionless Dean number k is defined as: k = Re (Dh/R)0.5 , where Re is the Reynolds number, Dh is the hydraulic diameter of the channel and R is the radius of curvature. Dean effects have been investigated to study mixing in serpentine-like systems microchannels. As fluid flows downstream in a curved channel, centrifugal effects pull the fluid that is closer to the inner wall radially along the midplane towards the outer wall. Simultaneously, fluid that is closer to the outer wall is swept inwards along the channel walls. Ultimately, a nearly complete 180u rotation is induced above and below the midplane that causes the two fluids to almost completely switch positions within the channel (velocity and concentration profiles were obtained from the analytical solution to a first order perturbation expansion of the equations of motion in a channel of circular cross-section for the ideal case of two immiscible species46). Unfortunately, in serpentine channels that are made up of opposing curved segments, this effect is reversed as the fluids flow from one bend to the other, and this cycle continues along the entire length of the channel. Consequently, the interface between the two fluids simply undulates between the channel walls without achieving appreciable mixing. One way of overcoming this flow reversal problem is to design a channel such that the transverse secondary flows are sustained over longer distances. Howell et al.47 have shown this to be possible in wide (>1 mm) spiral channels and Vanka et al. Fluids traveling through curvilinear channels experience an interplay between inertial forces acting to direct axial motion and centrifugal effects acting along the conduits radius of curvature. Under appropriate conditions, these effects establish a radial pressure gradient

whose magnitude can become sufficient to generate a transverse flow field. These so-called Dean flows occur widely in nature and play an important role in a variety of applications ranging from chemical and mechanical engineering (e.g., heat exchangers, piping systems) to biomedical science (e.g., arterial blood flow, dialysis instruments) . The concept of Dean mixing has been explored extensively on the macroscale, where the use of helical tubes or pipes that extend out of a 2D plane allows curved flow trajectories to be maintained far downstream. A further adaptation of Dean effects are so-called twisted pipe designs (constructed by joining a series of planar curved segments such that each subsequent segment is oriented at a nonzero pitch angle relative to the previous one) where the inherent symmetry of the secondary flow streamlines is disrupted yielding chaotic particle projectiles. Variations of helical and twisted pipe arrangements have been investigated to enhance mixing in microfluidic systems; however, the corresponding nonplanar flow geometries often require multilevel or specialized fabrication processes that can introduce added complexity (17, 19, 28, 29). Conversely, the design of planar curved microchannels capable of sustaining transverse circulation over a sufficient downstream distance to compensate for the incompatibility between flow and diffusion timescales also has proven challenging. In this work, we show how these limitations can be overcome so that transverse Dean flows can be readily harnessed at the microscale to enable efficient micromixing in topologically simple and easily fabricated planar smooth-walled 2D microchannels. Two unique micromixer designs are described as follows: (i) a planar split-and-recombine (P-SAR) arrangement capable of generating multiple alternating lamellae of individual fluid species, and (ii) an asymmetric serpentine micromixer (ASM) configuration coupling vertical transverse Dean flow effects with the action of expansion vortices in the horizontal plane. The experimental evaluation of the mixing performance corroborates the numerical prediction: the mixing performance found for Dean numbers above 140 is qualitatively different from that at lower Dean numbers; the periodic switching between different vortex patterns leads to efficient mixing, manifesting itself in an exponential growth of interfacial area. In addition to the studies on mixing, residence-time distributions in the mixing channel are computed numerically. These investigations indicate that due to mass-transfer enhancement originating from the transversal redistribution of matter in the chaotic flow, hydrodynamic dispersion is substantially reduced relative to a straight channel.

Secondary flows can be used for better mixing between two miscible liquids in two phase segmented flow. In gas liquid flow, the inserted gas phase segments the liquid into small, isolated slugs and acts as a barrier between them. In curved microchannels, internal circulation occurs within the liquid slugs due to Dean flow. As Dean number crosses a crosses a critical value, the flow pattern in meandering microchannels switches from two to four vortices, which enhances mixing [1,2]. Hung et al. (2005) have proposed and simulated a passive micromixer with feedback channels that enable some of the fluid at the exit to flow back into the main stream. Haebele et al. (2005) and Grumann et al. (2005) have explored mixing on centrifugal platforms.

Several techniques have been employed to quantify micromixing. Howell et al. (2004) studied mixing of food dye with water. Jiang et al. (2004) used a fast ionic reaction to form a colored product in a meandering mixer. They have mentioned Blinking Vortex principle wherein the Dean vortices are drifted towards the outer wall, causing mixing to be more chaotic, with increase in Dean number. Mixing in Asymmetric serpentine mixers and spiral mixers has been studied by Sudarsan et al. (2005, 2006). In Asymmetric serpentine micromixer, mixing of fluids was enhanced by sudden increase in the cross sectional area of the channel, in addition to Dean flow. Mixing was performed in spiral mixers of various lengths. Numerical computations have showed that lemniscate reactors perform better conversions than helical reactors since they show less variation in residence time distribution.

Mixing of liquids in two phase segmented curved serpentine channels has been studied computationally [10] as well as experimentally [11]. Liau et al. (2005) introduced protrusions along the outer wall of the microchannel, in addition to curvature, for mixing crowded biological solutions.

In this work, experiments were performed to study mixing in two planar microchannels of different geometries: lamellar and spiral microchannels.

Figure 1: Dean flow in a curved pipe [8]

HYDRODYNAMICS

The best way to propose a comparative study of different micromixers is to consider their mixing times, which can be interpreted versus Reynolds number and power dissipation [13]. Experimental pressure drop data can be used to estimate the specific power dissipation.

For two phase mixing applications, the performance of the micromixer is judged by the characteristics of dispersion generated, which include physical properties such as bubble size and distribution and also the hydrodynamics of the flow [14].

In this study, experiments were conducted to measure pressure drops across the ends of the lamellar and spiral microchannels during single phase and two phase flows. Slug size and slug velocities were also determined for two phase flows.

SINGLE PHASE FLOW:

Figure 5 shows the pressure drops measured during water and kerosene single phase flow through lamellar microchannel.

For lamellar microchannel, the increase in pressure drop was almost linear in the range of Reynolds numbers mentioned above. Assuming Hagen Poiseuille equation to be valid, friction factor values were calculated theoretically as well as from the experimental pressure drop readings. P/L = (32v)/Dh2 Here, P is the pressure drop over the length L, the dynamic viscosity, v the superficial velocity and Dh is the microchannel hydraulic diameter. To compensate for the increase in pressure drop induced by the curvature of the microchannels, the following correction was added to theoretically predicted friction factors. fc/fs = 1.0 + [ 8.279 x 10-4 + (7.964 x 10-3 2.096 x 10-7Re2

, where fc is the corrected friction factor and fs is the friction factor calculated for a straight tube. This correlation was given by Tarbell and Samuels (1973) [15]. The corrected friction factors showed less deviation from experimental values for kerosene.

1000

100

f (expt) (b) f(theor, after correction) Press drop(kPa)

10

0.1 -1 0 1 log(Re) 2 3

For flow of water, even for flow rates where Dean numbers are greater than 20 and the correction for curvature has been applied, predicted friction factors are higher than experimental friction factors. Flow resistance due to 4 way connector and outlet tubing might have added to the pressure drop considerably. For kerosene, the slope of the pressure drop curve increases at higher Reynolds numbers (higher Dean numbers too). The additional resistance due to the curvature of the channel increases as the flow velocity increases.

TWO PHASE FLOW:

Figure 6 shows the pressure drops measured during kerosene water and air water two phase flow through the lamellar microchannel. The experimental results were interpreted using Lockhart Martinelli model.

Lockhart Martinelli Model:

The Lockhart and Martinelli model (1949) was established for two phase gas liquid flow in pipes. The following parameters are defined in the model:

= ((P/L)TP / (P/L)g))0.5

= ((P/L)TP / (P/L)l))0.5

= ((P/L)l / (P/L)g))0.5

where (P/L)TP is the two phase pressure drop and (P/L)g and (P/L)l are the gas and liquid single phase pressure drops that would be obtained if each phase was flowing alone in the pipe with the same superficial velocity as under two phase flow conditions. From Hagen Poiseuille equation, Martinelli Parameter can be written as,

lvl

0.5 gvg))

Chisholm and Laid (1958) proposed a correlation:

2 l

= 1 + c/X + 1/X2

, where constant, c is selected depending on the nature of flow of each of the phases. c = 5 (laminar flow of liquid laminar flow of gas)

From the experimentally measured values of pressure drop, the values of c calculated for kerosene water and air water flow were 0.632 and -3.02 respectively. In Figure 6, the pressure drop curve for air water flow appears to be composed of two straight lines of different slopes. This implies that the value of c is different for the two regions (Figure 7). The average values of c calculated for the two ranges of velocities: 0.167 3.333 cm/s and 13.333 33.333 cm/s, were -1.33 and -0.99 respectively. The higher second value of c is due to the increasing flow resistance due to curvature at higher velocities.

Chisholm correlation overestimates the pressure drop for slug flows. Slug flow can be described using an equation of the form:
2 l 2

, wh

readings are -6.33 and 1.26 respectively.

100 (a) 10

0.1

0.01 0 1 log(Re) 2 3