Numerical simulation of fluid flow mixing in flow-focusing microfluidic devices
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Halimeh Aghaei
Abstract
A numerical simulation through computational fluid dynamics is presented on the fluid flow mixing in a flow-focusing microfluidic device with three inlet channels confluence angles of 45, 67.5, and 90°. The effect of various parameters such as aspect ratio (0.5, 1, and 1.5), mixing channel length (1–4 mm), and Reynolds number (1–20) on the mixing efficiency, and the pressure drop are evaluated. The results demonstrate that the increase in mixing efficiency results from an increase in the Reynolds number and aspect ratio for all the angles. In addition, an increase in the pressure drop due to an increase in the Reynolds number and a decrease in the aspect ratio is observed. A longer length of the mixing channel indicates a higher mixing efficiency. The mixing efficiency is more suitable at an angle of 45° among the applied angles in terms of the operational and geometric parameters due to an increase in the contact surface of the flows at the inlet channels junction since the mixing index range is between 0.54 and 1 by varying the mentioned parameters.
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Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
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Research funding: None declared.
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Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- MSP designing with optimal fractional PI–PD controller for IPTD processes
- A novel nonlinear sliding mode observer to estimate biomass for lactic acid production
- pH prediction for a semi-batch cream cheese fermentation using a grey-box model
- Modeling of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide pollutants absorption in wetted-wire columns with alkanolamines
- Pharmaceutical wastewater treatment using TiO2 nanosheets deposited by cobalt co-catalyst as hybrid photocatalysts: combined experimental study and artificial intelligence modeling
- Numerical simulation of fluid flow mixing in flow-focusing microfluidic devices
- A nonlinear autoregressive exogenous neural network (NARX-NN) model for the prediction of solvent-based oil extraction from Hura crepitans seeds
- Intensification of thorium biosorption onto protonated orange peel using the response surface methodology
- Investigating the energy, environmental, and economic challenges and opportunities associated with steam sterilisation autoclaves
- Short Communication
- Molecular dynamics simulations of water-ethanol droplet on silicon surface
