Micromixing in Microfluidic

devices
By

Imroz Khan
Shaaz Anaam
Pradeep Naik Kethavath
Manvir Singh

Overview
a.

Introduction

b.

Need for micro mixing

c.

Mixing principles

d.

Macro vs micro mixing

e.

Challenges in micro mixing

f.

Types of micro mixing

g.

Passive mixer with trapezoidal blades

h.

Modeling and optimization of y mixer

Introduction
Over the past two decades, lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technologies have
driven considerable progress in the development of microsystems,
particularly for chemical, biological, and medical applications.

The miniaturized systems designed are generally implemented with a

microscale mixer to provide an intimate contact between the reagent
molecules for interactions/chemical reactions.

Why do we need mixing in

microfluidic devices
The channels dimensions in microfluidic systems are on the order of
micrometers and nano-fluidics they go up to nanometers.
This enabled noticeably reduce surface to volume ratio. And as the
result diminish sample consumption and obtain compact devices.
However one would mention that sample flow in such miniaturized
channel are extremely laminar and not turbulent this corresponds to
small Reynolds number values.

Consequently in such flow regime traditional turbulent mixing between

two liquids cannot occur.
However possibility to realize controllable and fast mixing is critical for
subsequent practical development of microfluidic-based devices.

Challenges in micro-mixing
At micro scale fluid mixing behaves radically different
Since the Re number is small, the hydrodynamic instabilities does not
develop resulting in a laminar flow
Fluids with laminar flow behave viscous and flow at low velocities
resulting in a poor mixing environment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wNmtle6qkE

Mixing Principles
Since the fluids at micro scale results in laminar flow, mixing in
microfluidic devices is generally achieved by taking advantage of the
relevant small length, which dramatically increases the effect of
diffusion and advection

Macro vs Micro Mixing

Types of micro-mixing
Micromixers are majorly classified into types based on the supply of
energy
I.
II.

Active micromixers
Passive micromixers

Active Micromixers
Active micromixers use external energy input as well as fluid pumping
energy to introduced time-dependent perturbations that stir and
perturb the fluid for accelerating the mixing process.

Active micromixers have higher mixer efficiency

However, the requirement to integrate peripheral devices such as the
actuators for the external power source into the microdevice, and the
complex and expensive fabrication process, limit the implementation of
such devices in practical applications.

Active micromixers(contd.)
In addition, in active mixing mechanisms such as ultrasonic waves, high
temperature gradients can damage biological fluids.
Therefore, active mixers are not a popular choice when applying
microfluidics to chemical and biological applications.

Types of Active
micromixers
Active micromixers rely on an external energy input to introduce
perturbation within the fluid streamlines to achieve mixing.
Therefore, they are categorized with respect to the type of external
perturbation energy:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.

Pressure field
Electrokinetic
Dielectrophoretic
Electrowetting
Magneto-hydrodynamic
Ultrasound

Passive micromixers
Passive mixing devices rely entirely on fluid pumping energy and use
special channel designs to restructure the flow in a way that reduces
the diffusion length and maximizes the contact surface area.

Passive mixers were the first microfluidic device reported, often entail
less expense and more convenient fabrication than active micromixers,
and can be easily integrated into more complex LOC devices.

Passive
Micromixers(Contd.)
Passive micromixers rely on the mass transport phenomena provided by
molecular diffusion and chaotic advection.
These devices are designed with a channel geometry that increases the
surface area between the different fluids and decreases the diffusion
path.
By contrast, the enhancement of chaotic advection can be realized by
modifying the design to allow the manipulation of the laminar flow
inside the channels.
The modified flow pattern is characterized by a shorter diffusion path
that improves the mixing velocity.

Types of Passive
Micromixers
Passive micromixers can be categorized as:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.

T- and Y-shaped micromixers

Parallel lamination micromixers
Sequential lamination micromixers
Focusing enhanced mixers
Chaotic advection micromixers
Droplet micromixers

T or Y shaped micromixer
The easiest and most basic design for a micromixer
The mixing process in this type of micromixer is obtained by guiding the
two liquids to be mixed in contact through a ow-through channel.

Higher the Re number

higher is the mixing quality
The swirling of the uid ow obtained at higher Re number results in
better dispersion of the uid within the channel volume and hence an
improvement in the mixing quality
Stratified flow
Re = 12
Vortex flow
Re = 80

Engulfment flow
Re = 240

Parallel Lamination
The concept of T- and Y-shaped
micromixers can be improved by
using more complicated designs
that split the inlet main streams
into n sub-streams and then
rejoin them to form a laminate
stream
This type of micromixer
enhances the mixing process by
decreasing the diffusion length
and increasing the contact
surface area between the two
uids.

Sequential Lamination
Similar to parallel lamination
micromixers, sequential lamination
micromixers rely on an exponential
increase in the contact surface
area and decrease in the length
path to achieve a shorter mixing
time.
The difference between the two
types of micromixers is the method
used to achieve lamination of the
uid to be mixed.

Flow Focusing
In hydrodynamic focusing, a central
sample solution ows within the
sheath of outer uids, which
constrain laterally the inner sample
ow to achieve a smaller stream
and thinner lamination width.
The extent of the width decrease of
the focused stream depends on the
volumetric ow rate ratio between
the sample ow and sheath ows.
The greater the ow rate difference,
the greater the degree of width
reduction.

Chaotic advection
Advection is the transport of a substance within a moving fluid. In the
micromixers, advection generally occurs in the direction of the flow,
hence it has no effect on the transversal transport of the substance.

However, advection in other directions, so-called chaotic advection, can

generate a transverse component of flow

Multiple phase and

microdroplet based mixers

PASSIVE MIXER WITH TRAPEZOIDAL BLADES

The main purpose of the micromixer is to mix small volumes of separate complex reactants or liquids into a
homogenous mixture within automatic integrated and microfabricated devices.
For predicting the flow characteristics, a dimensionless parameter called Reynolds number is defined. Reynolds
number is the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces, Re =(uDH)/, where is the density of fluid, u is the
average velocity, DH is the hydraulic diameter of channel and is the fluid viscosity. At the microscale, the Reynolds
number is small in value and viscous effect is dominant. Consequently, the fluid stream in microchannel is laminar
flow without turbulence which is the great challenge for mixing of the fluids. The mixing effect mostly relies on
molecular diffusion along the channel which is inefficient compared to convective mixing effect. Therefore,
alternative mixing methods such as stirrers and special geometry designs are required to create turbulent flows by
enlarging the contact area of different mixing liquids to increase the mixing efficiency as well as to reduce the mixing
time.
Passive mixers can be classified by the arrangement of the mixed phases: lamination mixing, serial lamination,
injection, chaotic advection and droplet [5]. In [6], a planar passive micromixer which includes four-rhombus
mixer with turning angle 60 and a converging-diverging element at the outlet is proposed to enhance the mixing
efficiency. The mixing of fluid flows exploits the splitting and joining of laminar flows

Geometrical Structure of the Micro MIxer

The 3-dimensional structure schematic presented as in Fig. 1. As can be seen in Fig. 1,the micromixer consists
of three inlets, one outlet and four mixing units. The purpose of three inlets is to create the hydrodynamic
focusing at their intersection. The sample goes into the middle inlet while the solvent is brought in from the side
inlets. Two side inlets act as the sheath flow to reduce the mixing path, enhancing mixing efficiency by diffusion
effect

In the mixing channel, the fluid flow becomes narrow because of the first trapezoidal blade on the right side.
Due to the slope angle, the top fluid flow is forced to go down to mix with bottom fluid flow. The fluid flow
continues until reaching the second trapezoidal blade on the left side then turns right. Due to the convergingdiverging element at the turning position, the velocity in the direction which is perpendicular to the main
channel may increase rapidly. Hence, the mixing efficiency may be greatly enhanced due to the created vortices
and transversal flows. The process is repeated until two fluids are completely mixed together and come out at
the outlet.
The detailed dimensions of the micromixer model are: lin = 400 m, win = w = 150 m, l1 = 330 m, l2 = 465
m, l3 = 135 m, l4 = 130 m, l5 = 265 m, l6 = 335 m, w1 = w2 = 75 m, = 75. In our simulation, those
dimensional values are fixed while the channel depth d is changed to evaluate influence of the depth over the
mixing quality.

Figure 1-1

MATHEMATICAL FORMULATION
A. Laminar flow and transport of diluted species model
The fluid flow is expressed as Navier-Stokes equation for
an incompressible flow as:

where D presents the diffusion coefficient, and

c denotes the concentration. The value of
diffusion coefficient using in this model is fixed
at 10-9 m2/s. The fluids entering to the two
slide inlets are the same species. Their molar
concentration values are set to 0. Meanwhile,
the fluid entering the middle inlet has molar
concentration set to 1. Three inlets are
designed to have the same geometric
dimension making the volume flow for
each inlet equal. Therefore, the total molar
concentration value of fluid at the outlet for
complete mixing fluid is 0.33

Numerical Results and

Discussions
Fig. 2 shows the velocity profile of the micromixer model
at Re = 40. As we can see in Fig. 2a, the velocity is much
higher when passing the converging-diverging element
compared with other region. According to the 3-dimensional
structure of our micromixer, fluid flow is tightened and turned
from left to right and vice versa, creating transversal flows.
The simulation results prove that the proposed mixer can
create transversal flows even at low Reynolds number. Fig. 2b
presents the counter-rotating of transversal flow at six
different cross-sections which is perpendicular to the main
channel. These transversal flows will dramatically improve
the mixing efficiency.

Fig 2

Numerical Results and

Discussion (Contd.)
Fig. 3 shows the mixing indices as functions of average
velocity in main channel when the channel depth
increases from 250 m to 300 m with 50 m per each
step.
The mixingperformance of the micromixer after four
mixing units is highest with d = 200 m.
Generally, mixing indices in all three testing cases
maintain high value over 0.8 for the whole range of
velocity from 0.001 m/s to 0.6 m/s.
However, the maximum value of mixing index when d
= 200m is higher compared with that when d = 250 m
or d = 300 m.
Because of the slope angle of the trapezoidal blades, the
top fluid is forced to go down to mix with bottom fluid.
If the thickness increases, top fluid need to move a
longer distance to reach the bottom fluid causing
decrease in the mixing efficiency.

 Fig. 4 shows the concentration profile of

whole geometrical structure of our proposed
micromixer and cross-sections at different
positions along the channel.
The cross-sections illustrate the stretchingfolding effect of the two different fluids that
will be mixed together.
This effect improves the mixing efficiency of
our micromixer.
As we can see in cross-section #7 of Fig. 6b,
two fluids are totally mixed together, forming
a mixture with the average molar
concentration of 0.39 which is close to the
perfect concentration of 0.33.

 Fig. 7a shows the particle trajectories along mixing

channel. When passing the converging-diverging
element, the particle trajectories of two fluids are
twisted and repeatedly bent from left to right and vice
versa, leading to the enhanced mixing efficiency.
Fig. 7b shows the Poincare map of different crosssections as in Fig. 6. The initial particle position of
two fluids is set as in cross-section #1 in which red
dots are from middle fluid and blue dots are from side
fluid.
The Poincare map #7 shows the uniform mixing
between red dots and blue dots which means our
proposed micromixer has high mixing efficiency.
There are some of particles got stuck to the channel
walls because each particle has its own mass. Thus,
the number of dots in Poincare map #7 is smaller
compared to that in the initial Poincare map #1.

Factors affecting mixing:

Establishment of the velocity profile in the mixing channel.
Since Reynolds number is very low, the velocity profile is established not far from the channel inlet (at a
distance of about 0.06w, where w is the width of the mixing channel

If the flow rate is the same in both inlet channels, then the flow Reynolds numbers in Channels A and B are
identical: Re = UQw/. The mixing time is determined only by the diffusion coefficient of the liquid D: m ~
w^2/D.

Diffusion effect:
Great channel length is required to provide flow mixing.
Leads to a substantial pressure drop due to friction at the channel walls.
Losses are lower if the flow slip rather than no-slip condition is specified at the walls of the channel.
In macroscopic descriptions, the no-slip condition is always used as the boundary condition, the slip length ranges
from a few nanometers to several tens of nanometers and can be neglected.
In microflows, slip can be significant. Slip length in microflows can reach a few hundred nanometers. This is due to
a change in the short-range order of the fluid near the surface, possible gas release at the channel walls, etc.
The presence of slip leads to a significant decrease in the frictional resistance at the channel walls and, hence, to a
reduction in the pressure drop.
The slip length can be increased by using various hydrophobic or even ultra-hydrophobic coatings In this case, the
slip length can reach tens of micrometers.
b (m)
p (Pa)
M (%)

Increasing the slip length to about 5 m almost halves the

pressure drop.
In the presence of slip at the walls, the mixing efficiency
does not change for short slip length, and even increases
for great slip lengths

293.3

17.6

0.01

293.1

17.6

0.05

291.7

17.6

0.1

290.1

17.6

263.0

17.7

184.5

17.9

20

87.6

18.4

Obstacle Effect:
Placing number of obstacles in mixing flow to change the flow structure accelerates the mixing process.
A symmetrical arrangement of obstacles is inefficient.
Characteristic size of the obstacles should be comparable to the channel size.
Mixing of two fluids in a T-type mixer with asymmetrically
arranged three and seven rectangular inserts.

Increasing the number of inserts increases the length of the channel, it is more appropriate to analyze the mixing
and pressure drop characteristics normalized by the channel length,

Specific (per unit length) mixing efficiency and specific loss of

pressure in a mixer with rectangular insert
N

M
p
(%/m) (Pa/m)
0
0.0094
0.
37
3
0.026
0.
92
5
0.035
1.
44
71
0.045
1.
92
72
0.085
7.
increasing number of inserts,38but

Mixing efficiency increases with

the pressure loss also increases which can be
reduced by using hydrophobic coatings
Mixing efficiency can be significantly improved by increasing the length of the inserts and connecting them to the
channel walls
Normalized mixing efficiency in a mixer with five rectangular
inserts versus dimensionless distance between them.
Flow topology depends strongly on the channel geometry, in particular the
distance between the inserts.
Mixing efficiency can be improved by varying this distance.

Dependence on Angle:
Seven different mixing angles of microchannels: (a) 30o (b) 60, (c) 90, (d) 120, (e)
120, (f) -90 , and (g) -60 with velocity measurements at the xz plane

Geometric and
relevant
parameters
Channel
length, L
Channel width,
W
Channel
depth, H
Hydraulic
diameter, Dh

Experimental
parameters
20 mm
200 micrometer

200 micrometer
200 micrometer

Things happening at Intersection

The streamlines followed the channel walls and a stratied laminar ow was formed before reaching the
junction of the two inlet channels.
Secondary vortices started to develop at the intersection of the two inlet channels where the vortex ow was
generated.
Secondary ow and the separation of the Boundary layer at the junction where there are some
discontinuities of the two-inlet micro channels of the Y-mixer are studied.
Due to the nature of impingement at the intersection of two uid streams ow separation occurred, and
consequently, vortices were generated.
This resulted in enhanced mixing performance; the vortex tended to break the uid stream into small eddies
thereby increasing the interfacial area; these reduced the diffusion distance between the molecules of two
uids in a mixing process.
Behavior became stronger as the separation area became larger.

Velocity prole of different mixing angle 30

Previous studied behavior became stronger as the separation area became large.
The number of vortices generated and their inuence appear strongly dependent on the mixing angle of the Ymixer.
At the intersection junction, a common stagnation (dead) zone with a different equivalent diameter (dz) of the
approximate plane circle was calculated

 Plug-like velocity prole for all the cases with different velocity values was observed at the middle parts of the
outlet channel.
Mixing angle of -60 has the maximum dz = 318.46micrometers, while the mixing angle of 30 has the least (dz
= 52.5 micrometer).
Larger the dead zone is, the larger the impinging effect of uid particles.
At this stage, more and more small uid eddies would be generated, and consequently much better mixing
occurs.

Mixing efciency of different mixing angle

Mixing angle (
)

Effect of mixing angle on mixing length.

Mixing length
(mm)

30

15.00

60

14.75

90

14.50

120

14.25

120

13.40

90
60

13.25
13.00

Effect of inlet velocity

When the inlet velocity is less than 160 micrometer, diffusion dominates over convection and mixing occurs
within the Y mixers. As the inlet velocity increases, a signicant amount of mixing takes place in the central
portion of the channel and larger mixing lengths are required.