Micromixing intensification by gas introduction in a miniaturized annular rotating flow mixer (MARFM)

Micromixers are effective mixing equipment, but efficient mixing at extreme operating conditions including high viscosity mu and high flow rate ratio R still remains challenges. In this work, a gas intensified miniaturized annular rotating flow mixer (MARFM) is proposed to intensify mixing at extreme operating conditions, and the mixing performances are characterized by the Villermaux/Dushman reaction. The results show that the gas introduction approach is crucial for effective mixing. tm can be reduced by 50 % at mu = 73.30 mPa.s and XS is decreased by 44 % at R = 32 in the gas intensified MARFM, compared with that without gas introduction. tm in the optimized gas intensified MARFM is between 0.291 and 1.75 ms when 4.72 mPa.s < mu < 73.30 mPa.s and 8 < R < 32. Moreover, an artificial neural network model is established to predict tm and the model could predict the mixing performance very well. CO 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.