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Optimization of slanted grooved micromixer with a serpentine channel at a lower Reynolds number

  • Oum El Kheir Hadj Rahmoun ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Noureddine Tayebi and Mohamed Saighi
Published/Copyright: August 31, 2021
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International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering
From the journal International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering Volume 19 Issue 12

Abstract

In Lab-On-Chip (LOC) applications, micromixing is the most important step to obtain fast analytical response in many biochemical and biological detections. Design and realization of smaller and shorter mixers with higher efficiency has become a necessity more than a recommendation. In this work, a numerical optimization of a passive mixer with a serpentine-shaped channel is proposed. By considering a laminar flow regime, the continuity and momentum equations, along with the advection-diffusion equation, are solved to evaluate the mixing performance. The optimization of the slanted grooves micromixer with a serpentine channel is achieved using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and response surface methodology (RSM) based on Box-Behnken design. This method is used to find a second-order polynomial regression model and to obtain the optimal groove design. The considered objective function is the mixing index, while the four design variables are: the number of grooves per half cycle (N), the groove angle (θ), the groove depth to channel height ratio (d/h) and the ratio of groove width to channel width (Wd/W). The optimization results indicate that the highest values of each selected interval of the groove depth to channel height ratio (d/h) and the angle between the radius and the groove (θ), on the other hand, the ratio of groove width to channel width (Wd/W) of about 0.45 are desirable to promote faster mixing. The Flow behaviour in optimized “slanted grooves mixer (SGM) with serpentine channel was tested for low Reynolds number Re ranging between 0.3 and 5, and the results have shown that in the range of Re from 0.3 to 0.7 the mixing index is greater than 85%, for large range of Re from 1 to 4.5, the mixing index reaches the value of 93% in the first cycle of the channel and it approaches 100% for channel length of 1.25 mm from the inlet of the channel. Thus the most important result of this work shows that higher efficiency is obtained for short distance and the required pressure drops decreases. This micromixer can be selected as a good candidate in applications that require a high degree of mixing with relatively small length mixing as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the analysis and extraction of DNA.

Keywords: CFD; microfluidics; mixing index; response surface methodology; slanted grooved micromixer
Corresponding author: Oum El Kheir Hadj Rahmoun, Center for Development of Advanced Technologies, Laser Material Processing Team, PO. Box 17 Baba-Hassen, 16303 Algiers, Algeria; and University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumedienne, Faculty of Physics, Thermodynamic and Energy System Laboratory, PO. Box 32 El-Alia, Bab Ezzouar, Algiers, Algeria, E-mail:

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: None declared.

  3. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

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Received: 2021-06-06
Accepted: 2021-08-18
Published Online: 2021-08-31

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/ijcre-2021-0155
Keywords for this article
CFD; microfluidics; mixing index; response surface methodology; slanted grooved micromixer

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Articles
  3. The strategy developed for high conversion and the multiplicity problems of biochemical reaction in a real CSTR with Cholette’s model
  4. Investigation on gas induction of liquid–gas ejector in jet loop reactor
  5. Design and simulation of a novel FOIMC-PD/P double-loop control structure for CSTRs and bioreactors
  6. Simulation of flow field characteristics in scheelite leaching tank with H2SO4–H3PO4
  7. Hydraulic characteristics of integrated settler based biofilm reactor as onsite sanitation system
  8. Potential of a mixed culture of microalgae for accumulation of beta-carotene under different stress conditions
  9. Simulation of heat transfer characteristics of tire particles in rotary kiln reactor
  10. Simultaneous removal of organics and bioenergy production by microbial fuel cell: modeling approach
  11. Optimization of slanted grooved micromixer with a serpentine channel at a lower Reynolds number
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