Gas mixing enhancement in minichannels using a rotationally oscillatory circular cylinder

Abstract

Oscillating structures and actuators can induce flow kinematics that enhances mixing. This approach is specifically effective for mixing enhancement in meso-scale channels, where the flow kinematics can be actively controlled using micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS). In this paper, numerical results for mixing of two incompressible ideal gas (Schmidt number of 1.0) streams through a 2D minichannel via a rotationally oscillating circular cylinder are presented and discussed. Simulations are performed for blockage ratio of D/H=l/3 and Reynolds number of 100 and oscillation amplitudes of π/3, 2π/3,π/2 and π for subharmonic (F < 1), harmonic (F = 1) and superharmonic (F > 1) regimes. Numerical results indicate that mixing performance is improved by about 70% compare to the plane channel at oscillation amplitude of π and excitation frequency of 25% higher than the natural frequency of vortex shedding of a stationary cylinder. It is shown that the mixing efficiency is increased by increasing of amplitude in all the cases except at very low excitation frequencies. This study also shows that when the excitation frequency is equal to the vortex shedding frequency the maximum power is required for mixing of two gases.