Abstract
This paper presents and compares two different strategies in the numerical simulation of passive microfluidic mixers based on chaotic advection. In addition to flow velocity field calculations, concentration distributions of molecules and trajectories of microscale particles were determined and compared to evaluate the performance of the applied modeling approaches in the proposed geometries. A staggered herringbone type micromixer (SHM) was selected and studied in order to demonstrate finite element modeling issues. The selected microstructures were fabricated by a soft lithography technique, utilizing multilayer SU-8 epoxy-based photoresist as a molding replica for polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) casting. The mixing processes in the microfluidic systems were characterized by applying molecular and particle (cell) solutions and adequate microscopic visualization techniques. We proved that modeling of the molecular concentration field is more costly, in regards to computational time, than the particle trajectory based method. However, both approaches showed adequate qualitative agreement with the experimental results.
Highlights
The precisely controlled manipulation of fluids in microanalytical systems or microchemical reactors is a key issue in terms of the use of these devices
Fast and cost effective, the prediction of the functional performance of preliminary analysis of the increasingly complex microfluidic systems is problematic considering that a coarse mesh resolution can deteriorate the resulting solutions
The applied mesh resolution is a key issue in concentration-based modeling of micromixers as proven by our work
Summary
The precisely controlled manipulation of fluids in microanalytical systems or microchemical reactors is a key issue in terms of the use of these devices. In addition to fluidic transport, integrated functional microfluidic elements (pumps, mixers, separators, etc.) are essential building blocks of sample preparation systems. The reliable modeling of the microscale fluidic processes in these systems is of critical importance to their economical design and development. Fast and cost effective, the prediction of the functional performance of preliminary analysis of the increasingly complex microfluidic systems is problematic considering that a coarse mesh resolution can deteriorate the resulting solutions. Our aim was to compare different modeling strategies to suggest a truly economical way to simulate demonstrative microfluidic systems, and to find a compromise between detailed solutions and fast analyses
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