有效的混合對於在生物技術產業、分析化學和醫藥等行業許多領域中的微流體裝置是非常重要的。然而,大部份的微混合器皆需要複雜的製作程序,在實際的微流體使用中可能是不適當的。這些混合器一般在低雷諾數條件下運作,造成了相對較長的反應時間在各種生化過程。本篇研究提出了一個新穎的半球形旋渦混合器用簡單的幾何結構以快速混合兩種液體。為了模擬混合性能,計算分析是基於暫態的三維質量守恆、動量守恆和物種濃度守恆方程式。測試液體被視為層流、不可壓縮、可互溶的性質一致的忽略重力和溫度變化影響的流動在計算域中。就此提議的混合器,同時啟動由兩個無電力驅動的指壓式幫浦,實驗和模擬結果表明強烈的漩渦生成在混合室的核心區域,在單觸發混合中實現了混合指標上升至93%。
Effective mixing is vitally important to many microfluidic devices in the areas of biotechnical industries, analytic chemistry and medical industries. However, most micro-mixers require complicated fabrication procedures, maybe improper for practical microfluidic utilization. These mixers generally operate under low Reynolds-number conditions, causing a relatively long reaction time in various biochemical processes. This study presents a novel hemisphere-shaped vortex mixer to rapidly mix two liquids with simple geometric structure. To simulate mixing behavior, computational analysis is based on the transient three-dimensional conservation equations of mass, momentum and species concentration. The liquids are treated as laminar, incompressible, miscible, uniform-property flows with insignificant gravity and temperature variation effects over the calculation domain. Considering the proposed mixer concurrently actuated by two finger-pressed pumps without electrical power, both experimental and simulation results show an intense swirling eddy formed in the core region of mixing chamber, achieving a mixing index up to 93% in a one-shot mixing event.