Experimental and Computational Fluid Dynamic Analysis of Mixing Problems in Microfluidic Device

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of the present work is to understand the physics of the mixing of fluids, velocity variation and pressure drop within micro channel using computational fluid dynamics and experimental technique. Methods/Statistical analysis: The computational fluid dynamics was performed at four different types of angles (300, 450, 600, 900) at constant flow rate 0.5 lph and experimental analysis was carried out at 60-degree angle at different flow rate (1lph, 1.5lph, 2lph, 2.5lph). The simulation and experimental was performed using three fluid mixing case of water +water; water +ethanol and water +glycerol. Finding: At a constant inlet flow rate of 0.5 lph and at 600 degree angle the percentage variation between experimental and simulation results was observed to be in the range of 2.97-3.14% in water +water; 2.31-2.83% in water +ethanol and 19.62- 20.56% in water +glycerol case. It has been observed that velocity is maximum at outlet when the mixing angle was 600 the % age increase in velocity between inlet and outlet in all the 04 angles was 78-114%. Application/Improvements: The application of the microfluidic devices is drug discovery, biomedical analyses, genetics, proteomics, biological and chemical reactions etc.