Efficiency enhancement of ICEK micromixer by arectangular obstacle

Micromixers play influential roles in many fields of researches such as chemical, biological and medical. Today, a vast range of studies have investigated micromixers in order to improve their mixing efficiency. Some researchers focus on micromixer channel geometry to improve mixing index. To serve this purpose, many studies are conducted, using electrokinetic effects to increase mixing efficiency. Insuch streams, an effective way to increase the efficiency of a micromixer is increasing flow disturbances. In this study, the electroosmotically driven flow through a microchannel with embedded conducting triangular hurdles is considered. After validating the numerical method, a conducting obstacle is put in the flow stream. The effect of aspect ratio of this obstacle on mixing efficiency is investigated. In addition,the effect of the obstacle position in the channel on mixing efficiency is studied. The results show that the position of this obstacle in the stream is very important. The obstacle is placed in the middle of the channel, and then it is placed near to one of the walls. The results indicate that if the obstacle placed near to the walls, the efficiency would increase more than the first case. Moreover, the results reveal that theaspect ratio of the obstacle has significant effects on the efficiency. This study demonstrates that more researches can be conducted in the field of induced charge electrokinetic micromixers.

Keywords:

Micromixer , ICEK , Mixing Index , CFD