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Multilamination of flows in planar networks of rotating microchannels

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Abstract

We describe a new multilamination technique to accelerated mixing of centrifugally pumped flows through a simple network of preferentially radial, low-aspect-ratio microchannels. Mixing by multilamination is enforced by planar split-and-recombine structures, consisting of a common inlet for two concurrent centrifugal flows, and a transient region of parallel microchannels which merge again into one common outlet. A repatterning of flow is observed in each parallel channel which is induced by the Coriolis pseudo force. In a distinct regime of the parameter space spanned by the speed of rotation, the channel geometry as the viscosity (and density) of the liquids, a multilamination of flow is achieved at the entrance of the common outlet channel. We also present parallelization and cascading strategies to further enhance the homogeneity and throughput of mixing by multilamination.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the support by the federal state of Baden–Württemberg for the grant “Bio-Disk” (No. 24-720.431-1-7/2) (Bio-Disk 2003) and the support of the CoMix project (CoMix – Coriolis Microreactor 2004) by the Landesstiftung Baden–Württemberg.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. HSG-IMIT, Wilhelm-Schickard-Straße 10, 78052, Villingen–Schwenningen, Germany

    Jens Ducrée & Roland Zengerle

  2. Laboratory for MEMS Applications, IMTEK, University of Freiburg, Georges–Köhler–Allee 106, 79110, Freiburg, Germany

    Thilo Brenner, Stefan Haeberle, Thomas Glatzel & Roland Zengerle

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  1. Jens Ducrée
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  2. Thilo Brenner
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  3. Stefan Haeberle
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  4. Thomas Glatzel
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  5. Roland Zengerle
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Correspondence to Jens Ducrée.

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Ducrée, J., Brenner, T., Haeberle, S. et al. Multilamination of flows in planar networks of rotating microchannels. Microfluid Nanofluid 2, 78–84 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-005-0056-5

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