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Patterning of flow and mixing in rotating radial microchannels

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Abstract

We demonstrate how the speed of mixing under laminar conditions can be appreciably enhanced in concurrent centrifugal flows through straight, low-aspect-ratio microchannels pointing in radial direction in the plane of rotation. The convective mixing is driven by the inhomogeneous distribution of the velocity-dependent Coriolis pseudo force and the interaction of the so-induced transverse currents with the side walls. By investigating the key impact parameters, which are the geometry of the channels and the speed of rotation, it is shown that the contact surface between two laminar flows can be folded to shorten mixing times by up to two orders of magnitude!

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the support by the federal state of Baden–Württemberg for the grant “Bio-Disk" (grant number 24-720.431-1-7/2) (Bio-Disk project – and June 2003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IMTEK – Institute of Microsystem Technology, University of Freiburg, Georges–Köhler–Allee 106, 79110, Freiburg, Germany

    Jens Ducrée, Stefan Haeberle, Thilo Brenner, Thomas Glatzel & Roland Zengerle

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  1. Jens Ducrée
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  2. Stefan Haeberle
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  3. Thilo Brenner
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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., Haeberle, S., Brenner, T. et al. Patterning of flow and mixing in rotating radial microchannels. Microfluid Nanofluid 2, 97–105 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-005-0049-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-005-0049-4

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