We consider a particular hydrodynamic focusing microfluidic mixer used to initiate the folding process of individual proteins, which has been designed in a previous work and exhibited a mixing time of 0.1 μs. The aim of the current paper is twofold. First, we explore the sensitivity of mixing time to key geometric and flow parameters. In particular, we study the angle between inlets, the shape of the channel intersections, channel widths, mixer depth, mixer symmetry, inlet velocities, working fluid physical properties, and denaturant concentration thresholds. Second, we analyze the uniformity of mixing times as a function of inlet flow streamlines. We find the shape of the intersection, channel width, inlet velocity ratio, and asymmetries have strong effects on mixing time; while inlet angles, mixer depth, fluid properties, and concentration thresholds have weaker effects. Also, the uniformity of the mixing time is preserved for most of the inlet flow and distances of down to within about 0.4 μm of the mixer wall. We offer these analyses of sensitivities to imperfections in mixer geometry and flow conditions as a guide to experimental efforts which aim to fabricate and use these types of mixers. Our study also highlights key issues and provides a guide to the optimization and practical design of other microfluidic devices dependent on both geometry and flow conditions.
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January 2016
Research Article|
January 15 2016
Design sensitivity and mixing uniformity of a micro-fluidic mixer
Benjamin Ivorra;
Benjamin Ivorra
a)
1Dept. de Matemática Aplicada & Instituto de Matemtica Interdisciplinar,
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
, Plaza de Ciencias, 3, 28040 Madrid, Spain
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Juana López Redondo;
Juana López Redondo
2Dept. de Informática & Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario (ceiA3),
Universidad de Almería. Ctra. Sacramento
, s/n, 04120 La Cañada de San Urbano, Almería, Spain
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Angel M. Ramos;
Angel M. Ramos
1Dept. de Matemática Aplicada & Instituto de Matemtica Interdisciplinar,
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
, Plaza de Ciencias, 3, 28040 Madrid, Spain
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Juan G. Santiago
Juan G. Santiago
3Mechanical Engineering Department,
Stanford University
, 440 Escondido Mall, Stanford, California 94305-3030, USA
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a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: ivorra@mat.ucm.es
Physics of Fluids 28, 012005 (2016)
Article history
Received:
January 28 2015
Accepted:
December 14 2015
Citation
Benjamin Ivorra, Juana López Redondo, Angel M. Ramos, Juan G. Santiago; Design sensitivity and mixing uniformity of a micro-fluidic mixer. Physics of Fluids 1 January 2016; 28 (1): 012005. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4939006
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