Mixing Enhancement and Interface Characteristics in a Small-Scale Channel

Abstract

The interface characteristics in a millimeter-scale channel are investigated in order to find a technique to speed up fluid mixing. The channel is fabricated on an acrylic-resin plate, where a cavity is attached in the downstream region of a T-shaped conduit. The mixing effect is evaluated using a blue dye and a colorless liquid, which are alternately injected into the channel by two syringe pumps. The important factors for highly efficient mixing under the combination of alternate inflow and cavity are investigated. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional numerical simulations are also performed, and the results are compared those of the experiment. It is confirmed that the fractal dimension and interface length inside a cavity can be used as indicators to predict the mixing level in the downstream region, although they are not perfect. The importance of focusing on both the stretching rate of the interface and the concentration gradient where the stretching of the interface occurs is presented.

Keywords

• fluid mixing
• millimeter-scale channel
• interface length
• fractal dimension
• concentration gradient