• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.711-717
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• 2007

Shape optimization of a staggered herringbone groove micromixer using three-dimensional Navier-Stokes analysis has been carried using Kriging model. The analysis of the degree of mixing is performed by the calculation of spatial data statistics. The calculation of the variance of the mass fraction at various nodes on a plane in the channel is used to quantify mixing. A numerical optimization technique with Kriging model is applied to optimize the shape of the grooves on a single wall of the channel. Three design variables, namely, the ratio of groove width to groove pitch, the ratio of the groove depth to channel height ratio and the angle of the groove, are selected for optimization. A mixing index is used as the objective function. The results of the optimization show that the mixing is very sensitive to the shape of the groove which can be used in controlling mixing in microdevices.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.227-234
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• 2010

Numerical analyses have been performed to investigate the effects of geometric parameters of a straight groove micromixer on mixing performance and pressure drop. Three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations with two working fluids, water and ethanol have been used to calculate mixing index and pressure drop. A parametric study has been carried out to find the effects of the number of grooves per cycle, arrangement of patterned walls, and additional grooves in triangular dead zones between half cycles of grooves. The three arrangements of patterned walls in a micromixer, i.e., single wall patterned, both walls patterned symmetrically, and both walls patterned asymmetrically, have been tested. The results indicate that as the number of grooves per cycle increases the mixing index increases and the pressure drop decreases. The microchannel with both walls patterned asymmetrically shows the best mixing performance among the three different arrangements of patterned walls. Additional grooves confirm the better mixing performance and lower pressure drop.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.29 no.2 s.233
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• pp.232-238
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• 2005

The 'Mixing Index($D_I$)' is used as a conventional guidance measuring the degree of mixing for multiphase flows. For the case when insoluble solutions flow in a passive micromixer, a new method to calculate $D_I$ is proposed. The 'Vortex Index(${\Omega}_I$)' is suggested and formulated. We infer that ${\Omega}_I$ relates to the degree of chaotic advection. Various arbitrary shaped microchannels were tested to calculate the $D_I\;and\;{\Omega}_I$, and then a simple algebraic equation, $D_I=Aexp(B{\Omega}_I)$, is obtained. This equation may be used instead of the conventional partial differential equation, concentration equation, to estimate the degree of mixing.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.1841-1844
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• 2004

'Mixing Index($D_I$)'s generally used to measure the degree of mixing. A new method to calculate $D_I$ was proposed, when insoluble solution flows in micromixer. 'Vortex Index (${\Omega}_I$)'which indicate the degree of chaotic advection, is defined and formulated. A lots of arbitrary shaped microchannels were tested to calculate the $D_I$ and ${\Omega}_I$. And then a simple algebraic equation, $D_I=A{\Omega}_I+B$, was obtained. This equation may be used instead of partial differential equation, concentration equation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2011.06a
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• pp.639-640
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• 2011

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.409-410
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• 2010

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.751-757
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• 2011

Subminiature devices such as Lab-on-a-chip and p-TAS(Micro Total Analysis System) have been intensively studied in biotechnology and chemistry, In many cases, a micromixer was widely used to mix different solutions for synthesizing novel materials. However, in microfluidic system, there is generally a laminar flow under very small Reynolds number so it is difficult to mix each solution perfectly. To settle this problem, we propose a new mixing mechanism which generates a horizontal and vertical multi-mixing (HVM) flow for effective mixing within a short mixing section. We evaluated the proposed mechanism using CFD analysis, and the results showed that the HVM mechanism had a relative high-effectiveness comparing to the existing methods.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.851-857
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• 2010

In this study, an experiment was performed to obtain the optimum design of a passive micromixer for effective mixing by using a microsized device and rectangular obstacles; a low Reynolds number was maintained in the microchannel. The experiment was carried out by varying the number, size, and location of the rectangular obstacles. Further, the Y-channel's shape was optimized for maximizing the mixture ratio, which has limit qualification that an allowed value of pressure drop. The increase in the efficiency of mixing was observed to be greater than that in the case of circular obstacles by approximately 2.5%.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1758-1760
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• 2008

Under typical operating conditions, flows in microfluidic devices are laminar and molecular diffusion across the channels is slow, which makes an efficient mixing in microfluidic devices difficult to achieve. The mechanism to achieve effective mixing in laminar flows is that of repetitive stretching and folding. Essential is to generate spatially periodic flows with crossing cross sectional streamlines. A mapping method is employed to analyze mixing in micromixers, enabling us to investigate the progress of mixing both qualitatively and quantitatively. The progress of mixing is characterized by a measure of mixing, called the discrete intensity of segregation. The mapping method is applied to mixing in such micromixers as the staggered herringbone mixer, the barrier embedded micromixer, and the three-dimensional serpentine channel to demonstrate the capability of the numerical scheme to tackle general mixing problems in microfluidic devices.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.1016-1020
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• 2003

In this paper, we present a technology of producing anew chaotic micromixer, named Micromixer with Arranged Blocks(MAB), and the experimental result of the mixing performance. Chaotic mixing was successfully achieved by introducing periodic perturbation in the field of the channel flow by means of slanted blocks. The MAB was made by an RP(Rapid Prototyping) technology. We performed flow visualization experiments for the quantification of the mixing performance with the MAB. Lyapunov exponent was measured to be 0.3557 and 0.1305 for the block height 0.8 and 0.2 times the channel width.