Noise-Induced Stability Analysis of a Capillary Flow Microreactor with Mixing by Radial Diffusion of Laminar Flow Profiles

Abstract

To overcome the problem of fluid mixing in capillary tubes, the induction of radial diffusion of laminar flow profiles RDLFP was proposed recently, together with a mathematical. Since, under realistic conditions, continuous flow capillary reactors are influenced by noise in the feed streams, the stability of such a reactor for a system of three liquids was analyzed through its largest Lyapunov exponents. Simulations showed that although the aim of RDLFP is to improve mixing, poorly mixed microreactors are more robust to the influx of noise than well-mixed tubes. Therefore, these contrasting requirements have to be balanced to decide the besy operating conditions. Multi-component noise in multi-fluid systems can also induce stochastic resonance, which may either enhance or reduce stability. Thus, it is important and useful to filter the noise judiciously to promote reactor stability.