Electrokinetically driven flow mixing utilizing chaotic electric fields

This paper presents a novel microfluidic mixing scheme in which the species streams are mixed via the application of chaotic electric fields to four electrodes mounted on the upper and lower surfaces of the mixing chamber. Numerical simulations are performed to analyze the effects of the resulting chaotic electrokinetic driving forces on the fluid flow characteristics within the micromixer and the corresponding mixing performance. During simulation, chaotic oscillating electric potentials are derived using a Duffing-Holmes chaos system. Simulation results indicate that the chaotic electrokinetic driving forces induce a complex flow behavior within the micromixer which results in efficient mixing of the two species streams. It is shown that mixing efficiencies up to 95% can be obtained in the novel micromixer.