Level-set based topology optimization for a microfluidic static mixer with two flow modelings

Abstract

Static mixers have been widely used in the biochemical industry because they are portable, reliable and low-energy. We construct a rection-diffusion equation-based (RDE) level-set method (LSM) to conduct topology optimization (TO) for a T-junction static mixer design. The RDE-based TO method combines the concept of the Ersatz material approach with the boundary variation level set-based method. In the context of a fluid-based TO problem, a fluid-solid system can be modeled by using either a monolithic formulation or a system of separate equations. In this paper, we present a comparative study and discuss their different features. After describing the numerical example model, we show the optimized flow path based on both flow modeling strategies. The generally optimized flow paths are quite similar, indicating the CPU time to calculate. Due to algorithmic differences, the use of a system of separate equations is more advantageous with respect to CPU time.