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Direct measurement of mixing quality in a pulsatile flow micromixer

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Abstract

Pulsatile action can be used to mix two streams entering a tube from two separate branches of a bifurcation at low Reynolds numbers. The pulsatile action is provided by two pinch valves, which deform flexible tubing immediately upstream of the connection. The pinch valve action is controlled using a master-slave pulse generator setup. The quality of mixing is evaluated directly by measuring the fluorescence that results from the chemical reaction of species transported in the two streams, one containing native biotin and the other, fluorescein biotin bound to streptavidin. The reaction kinetics are accounted for by normalization using fluorescence measurements on well mixed solutions at the same residence time. The results show that the pulsatile micromixer provides almost complete mixing. Furthermore, the present measurements match results obtained in a previous experiment where flow visualization and image analysis were used to measure mixing quality in a scaled-up model.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIH Grant No. GM60799/EB00264.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA

    Richard A. Truesdell, J. W. Bartsch & A. A. Mammoli

  2. Health Sciences Center, Department of Pathology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA

    T. Buranda & L. A. Sklar

Authors
  1. Richard A. Truesdell
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  2. J. W. Bartsch
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  3. T. Buranda
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  4. L. A. Sklar
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  5. A. A. Mammoli
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Correspondence to Richard A. Truesdell.

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Truesdell, R.A., Bartsch, J.W., Buranda, T. et al. Direct measurement of mixing quality in a pulsatile flow micromixer. Exp Fluids 39, 819–827 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-005-0015-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-005-0015-7

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