Numerical study of a novel electroosmotic active micromixer with twin diamond-shaped chambers and sawteeth

Abstract

Microfluidic technology is widely used in biomedicine, chemical analysis, and environmental improvement. Improvement of the mixing quality of low Reynolds number flows in micro-dimensional devices is essential. In this paper, we present a novel electroosmotic micromixer with twin diamond-shaped chambers and sawteeth, that can broaden the mixing space and boost the local velocity. The fluids are disturbed and folded due to the electroosmotic flow generated by electrodes on the chambers. The comprehensive analysis of the flow characteristics, the mixing performance and pressure drop of the micromixer of different parameters have been carried out. The findings demonstrate that each of these designs is good for efficient mixing, and numerous vortices are generated in the chambers. After optimizing the parameters, the best mixing efficiency can reach 99.9% in one second. The novel structure proposed in this paper provides a simple and effective method for mixing in the field of micro-total-analysis systems.