Modeling and investigation on mixing characteristics of T & Y-shaped micromixers for microfluidic devices

Abstract

The paper presents modelling of micromixer with two different shapes such as T and Y aiming at investigating mixing characteristics by shortens the diffusion path length of fluids. The variation of mixing characteristics viz., pressure distribution, velocity of fluids, mixing efficiency, concentration distribution, mixing path or length by varying the diffusion coefficients as 1 × 10−11 m2/s, 5 × 10−11 m2/s, 1 × 10−10 m2/shave been evaluated. The output concentration for T-shape micromixer against applied diffusion coefficients are 0.49999 mol/m3, 0.50000 mol/m3 and for Y-shape micromixer, 0.49888, 0.49995 & 0.50003 mol/m3 respectively. Same output concentration is observed for T-shape micromixer corresponding to 5 × 10−11 m2/s, 1 × 10−10 m2/s diffusion inputs. From the analyses of simulation results, it has been observed that with increase in diffusion coefficient, output concentration found to increase, but no significant variations of flow velocity field and pressure distribution were observed. However, flow velocity increased with rise in length of mixing channel. More specifically, flow velocity field found to be maximum of 0.3 m/s for T-Shape while it was 0.16 m/sfor Y-shape. The results leading to improved mixing efficiency are explored in detail. To carry out this work, a software tool COMSOL Multiphysics v 4.3b is used. These kinds of studies are highly useful for developing microfluidic systems for diagnosis, drug delivery, and investigation of disease symptoms.