Experimental Study on Chaotic Mixing Created by a New Type of Mixer with Rotational Blades

Abstract

The aim of this paper is an experimental investigation of laminar mixing in a new type of chaotic mixer, which has been proposed by Hwu (2008), by means of material line deformation. The mixer is a circular cavity with two rotational blades which move along a semicircular path and drive the fluid motion. The flow visualization is carried out by marking of the free surface of the flow with a tracer in working fluid. In the present study the effects of length and rotational speed of blades on mixing efficiency are evaluated by measuring of the area covered by the tracer. As a result, it is demonstrated that the goodness of mixing increases as rotational speed of blades increases. Also, it is detected that the mixing efficiency strongly depends on the lengths of rotating blades.