Numerical simulation of a three dimensional electroosmotic micromixer with a flexible and controllable Rubik's cube module

Abstract

Based on the incompressible Navier Stokes equation (N-S) and the coupling principle of laminar flow and electric field, a new 3D electroosmotic micromixer with a variable module is designed in this paper. A microchannel is designed throughout the variable module to improve the mixing efficiency. The mixing efficiency of the electroosmotic micromixer in different directions, different positions, different alternating voltages and different times was studied. It can be seen from the simulation results that under the influence of electric field, the number, size and position of vortexes formed by the fluid in the microchannel are different. When the Reynolds number (Re) < 10, the electroosmotic micromixer shows a good mixing effect. When Re > 10, most of the micromixers with several torsion modes show a rapid downward trend. Different from the other variable methods, when the first variable module is rotated in the YZ plane, the mixing efficiency decreases slowly and changes steadily, and the maximum mixing efficiency can reach 98.89%. The new electroosmosis micromixer has a smaller pressure drop and provides high flexibility for rapid mixing and a very stable high mixing efficiency.