• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국전산유체공학회 2008년 추계학술대회논문집
• /
• pp.204-207
• /
• 2008

Stochastic molecular dynamics simulation is a variation of standard molecular dynamics simulation that basically omits water molecules. The omission of water molecules, occupying a majority of space, enables flow simulation at microscale. This study reports our stochastic molecular dynamics simulation of particles diffusing in rectangular microchannels. We interestingly found that diffusion patterns in channels with a very small aspect ratio differ by dimensions. We will also discuss the future direction of our research toward a more realistic simulation of micromixing.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
• /
• 제30권3호
• /
• pp.302-309
• /
• 2006

Effective mixing plays a crucial role in microfluidics for biochemical applications. Owing to the small device scale and its entailing the low Reynolds number, the mixing in microchannels proceeds very slowly. In this work, we optimize the configuration of obstacles in the Y-channel mixer in order to attain maximum mixing efficiency. Before the optimum design, mixing characteristics are investigated using unstructured grid CFD method. Then, the analysis method is employed to construct the approximate analysis model to be used in the optimization procedure. The main optimization tool in the present work is sequential quadratic programming method. Using this approximate optimization procedure, we may obtain the optimum layout of obstacles in the Y-channel mixer in an efficient manner, which gives the maximum mixing efficiency.

• 한국정밀공학회지
• /
• 제25권6호
• /
• pp.143-149
• /
• 2008

This paper presents the results of the study on the novel micro mixer. Existing micro mixer is classified as active mixing and passive mixing by the mixing principles. Both mixing principles have problems. For solving these problems, this research has developed the novel micro mixers based on a totally different principle compared with former mixers. They not only have a simpler structure than former ones but also are able to achieve high mixing efficiency in spite of low power consumption due to using Lorentz Force. In addition, they are designed to increase the efficiency of mixing by changing the rotating direction of fluid with a polar switching circuit. Driving forces of the mixer are Lorentz force and a moving force of fluid due to electrophoresis. Because the efficiency of mixer is affected by electrode shape, several models have been made. The computer simulation has been made to estimate the efficiency of each mixer.

• 한국전산유체공학회지
• /
• 제8권2호
• /
• pp.16-23
• /
• 2003

A numerical study of the mixing of two fluids(pure water and a solution of glycerol in water) in a microchannel was carried out. By varying the glycerol content of the glycerol/water solution, the variation in mixing behavior with changes in the difference of the properties of the two fluids(e.g., viscosity, density, diffusivity) was investigated. The mixing phenomena were tested for three micromixers: a square mixer, a three-dimensional serpentine mixer, and a staggered herringbone mixer. The governing equations of continuity, momentum and solute mass fraction were solved numerically. To evaluate mixing performance, a criterion index of mixing of mixing uniformity was proposed. In the systems considered, the Reynolds numbers based on averaged properties were 1 and 10. For low Reynolds number (Re = 1), the mixing performance varied inversely with mass fraction of glycerol due to the dominance of molecular diffusion. The mixing performance by diffusion deteriorated due to a significant reduction in the residence time of the fluid inside the mixers.

• 센서학회지
• /
• 제20권6호
• /
• pp.368-374
• /
• 2011

A microfluidic device for real-time monitoring of residual free chlorine and pH in water based on optical absorption is proposed. The device consists of a serpentine micromixer for mixing samples with a reagent, and a photodiode and light emitting diode(LED) for the detection of light absorbance at specific wavelengths, determined for specific reagent combinations. Spectral analyses of the samples mixed with N, N'-diethyl-p-phenylenediamine(DPD) reagent for chlorine determination and bromothymol blue(BTB) for pH measurement are performed, and the wavelengths providing the most useful linear changes in absorbance with chlorine concentration and pH are determined and used to select the combination of LED and photodiode wavelengths for each analyte. In tests using standard solutions, the device is shown to give highly reproducible results, demonstrating the feasibility of the device for the inexpensive and continuous monitoring of water quality parameters with very low reagent consumption.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
• /
• 제28권12호
• /
• pp.1549-1556
• /
• 2004

We have deigned, fabricated and compared four different types of static chaos microfluid mixers, including the mixers using straight channel flow, microblock-induced alternating whirl flow, microchannel-induced lamination flow, and combined alternating whirl-lamination flow. Among them, the alternating whirl-lamination (AWL-type) mixer, composed of 3-D rotationally arranged microblocks and dividing microchannels fabricated by conventional planar lithography process, is effective to reduce the mixing length over wide flow rate ranges. We characterize the performance of the fabricated mixers, through the flow visualization technique using phenolphthalein solution. We verify that the AWL-type microfluid mixer shows the shortest fluid mixing length of 2.8mm∼5.8mm for the flow rate range of Re=0.26∼26 with the pressure drop lower than 5kPa. Compared to the previous mixers, requiring the mixing lengths of 7∼17mm, the AWL-type microfluid mixer results in the 60% reduction of the mixing lengths. Due to the reduced mixing lengths within reasonable pressure drop ranges, the present micromixers have potentials for use in the miniaturized Micro-Total-Analysis-Systems($\mu$TAS).

• 한국가시화정보학회지
• /
• 제16권2호
• /
• pp.53-58
• /
• 2018

This paper presents an electromagnetically driven microrobot for the enhancement of mixing performance in high viscous liquid media such as blood and bone marrow. First, an electromagnetic system was fabricated, and the magnetic flux density generated from the system was compared with the theoretical value. Second, the reciprocating motion of the microrobot was demonstrated in microchannel using electromagnetic system. As a proof of concept, the mixing performance by the electromagnetically driven microrobot in high viscous liquid was investigated using safranin solution. As a result, it was completely mixed within 140 s with the reciprocating motion of the microrobot while it took 1680 s for natural diffusion. In addition, the mixing efficiency was quantitatively evaluated through a mixing index obtained by an image analysis. The proposed method provides not only wireless actuation of a microrobot with a simple design but also high mixing performance in variety of high viscous liquid media.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국진공학회 2013년도 제45회 하계 정기학술대회 초록집
• /
• pp.276-276
• /
• 2013

Here we report an integrated microdevice consisting of an efficient passive mixer, a magnetic separation chamber, and a capillary electrophoretic microchannel in which DNA barcode assay, target pathogen separation, and barcode DNA capillary electrophoretic analysis were performed sequentially within 30 min for multiplex pathogen detection at the single-cell level. The intestine-shaped serpentine 3D micromixer provides a high mixing rate to generate magnetic particle-pathogenic bacteria-DNA barcode labelled AuNP complexes quantitatively. After magnetic separation and purification of those complexes, the barcode DNA strands were released and analyzed by the microfluidic capillary electrophoresis within 5 min. The size of the barcode DNA strand was controlled depending on the target bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Salmonella typhimurium), and the different elution time of the barcode DNA peak in the electropherogram allows us to recognize the target pathogen with ease in the monoplex as well as in the multiplex analysis. In addition, the quantity of the DNA barcode strand (~104) per AuNP is enough to be observed in the laser-induced confocal fluorescence detector, thereby making single-cell analysis possible. This novel integrated microdevice enables us to perform rapid, sensitive, and multiplex pathogen detection with sample-in-answer-out capability to be applied for biosafety testing, environmental screening, and clinical trials.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
• /
• 제11권3호
• /
• pp.163-168
• /
• 2011

Background: Nanoparticles (NPs) prepared from biodegradable polymers, such as poly (D,L-lactic acid-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), have been studied as vehicles for the delivery of antigens to phagocytes. This paper describes the preparation of antigen-loaded PLGA-NPs for efficient cross-priming. Methods: NPs containing a similar amount of ovalbumin (OVA) but different sizes were produced using a micromixer-based W/O/W solvent evaporation procedure, and the efficiency of the NPs to induce the cross-presentation of OVA peptides were examined in dendritic cells (DCs). Cellular uptake and biodistribution studies were performed using fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-loaded NPs in mice. Results: The NPs in the range of $1.1{\sim}1.4{\mu}m$ in size were the most and almost equally efficient in inducing the cross-presentation of OVA peptides via $H-2K^b$ molecules. Cellular uptake and biodistribution studies showed that opsonization of the NPs with mouse IgG greatly increased the percentage of FITC-positive cells in the spleen and lymph nodes. The major cell type of FITC-positive cells in the spleen was macrophages, whereas that of lymph nodes was DCs. Conclusion: These results show that IgG-opsonized PLGA-NPs with a mean size of $1.1{\mu}m$ would be the choice of biodegradable carriers for the targeted-delivery of protein antigens for cross-priming in vivo.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
• /
• 제10권3호
• /
• pp.240-253
• /
• 2017

Latin hypercube sampling is widely used design-of-experiment technique to select design points for simulation which are then used to construct a surrogate model. The exploration/exploitation properties of surrogate models depend on the size and distribution of design points in the chosen design space. The present study aimed at evaluating the performance characteristics of various surrogate models depending on the Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) procedure (sample size and spatial distribution) for a diverse set of optimization problems. The analysis was carried out for two types of problems: (1) thermal-fluid design problems (optimizations of convergent-divergent micromixer coupled with pulsatile flow and boot-shaped ribs), and (2) analytical test functions (six-hump camel back, Branin-Hoo, Hartman 3, and Hartman 6 functions). The three surrogate models, namely, response surface approximation, Kriging, and radial basis neural networks were tested. The important findings are illustrated using Box-plots. The surrogate models were analyzed in terms of global exploration (accuracy over the domain space) and local exploitation (ease of finding the global optimum point). Radial basis neural networks showed the best overall performance in global exploration characteristics as well as tendency to find the approximate optimal solution for the majority of tested problems. To build a surrogate model, it is recommended to use an initial sample size equal to 15 times the number of design variables. The study will provide useful guidelines on the effect of initial sample size and distribution on surrogate construction and subsequent optimization using LHS sampling plan.