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Numerical and experimental study on mixing performance of a novel electro-osmotic micro-mixer

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Abstract

This paper presents the numerical and experimental study on mixing enhancement in a novel electro-osmotic micro-mixer in the presence of AC and DC electric fields. PDMS is used for the fabrication of the microchip and gold nanoparticles are employed to make the electrodes. It is demonstrated that the generation of vortices due to electro-osmotic force enhances the mixing quality considerably. The strength of the vortices for DC electric field is higher than that for AC one. The results reveal that the mixing performance can be controlled by the value of applied voltage and inlet velocity of the fluids for both DC and AC electric fields. It is concluded that the mixing performance improves by enhancing the applied voltage and decreasing the inlet velocity. The experimental results are in very good agreement with the numerical ones qualitatively.

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Abbreviations

AC:

Alternative current

\( C_{i} \) :

Concentration at grid point i (mol/m3)

\( \overrightarrow {{C_{i} }} \) :

Local concentration (mol/m3)

\( \bar{C} \) :

Average concentration (mol/m3)

DC:

Direct current

\( D_{i} \) :

Diffusion coefficient (m2/s)

\( \vec{E} \) :

Applied electric field (V/m)

E o :

(V/m)

f :

Frequency (Hz)

\( j_{i} \) :

The mass flux of the \( i_{th} \) species (kg/m2s)

ME:

Mixing efficiency

\( \vec{n} \) :

Normal unit vector (m)

N:

Number of nodes

p:

Pressure (Pa)

t:

Time (s)

\( \vec{u} \) :

Velocity vector (m/s)

\( U_{o} \) :

Inlet velocity (m/s)

\( \vec{v} \) :

Liquid velocity due to electric field (m/s)

\( V_{e} \) :

Electric potential (V)

ε :

Dielectric constant

\( \varepsilon_{o} \) :

Permittivity of vacuum (C/Vm)

μ :

Dynamic viscosity (kg/ms)

ρ :

Density (kg/m3)

\( \zeta_{w} \) :

Zeta potential on the inner walls (V)

\( \sigma_{C} \) :

Standard deviation

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran

    Azam Usefian & Morteza Bayareh

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  1. Azam Usefian
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  2. Morteza Bayareh
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Correspondence to Morteza Bayareh.

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Usefian, A., Bayareh, M. Numerical and experimental study on mixing performance of a novel electro-osmotic micro-mixer. Meccanica 54, 1149–1162 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11012-019-01018-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11012-019-01018-y

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