Effect of the crossing-structure sequence on mixing performance within three-dimensional micromixers

The geometry of crossing structure formed by two-layer microchannels determines the axial and transverse movements of contact interface between two liquid streams, which gives us a new method for promoting the micromixers. Hence, we designed four different three-dimensional micromixers by selecting two different crossing structures as basic units (one unit is a crossing structure called "X" and the other is a reversed crossing structure called "rX"). In order to find out how the crossing-structure sequence affects the mixing performance within three-dimensional micromixers, we organized these four mixers in different ways, i.e., the first combination is X-rX-X-rX-..., the second is X-rX-rX-X-..., the third is X-X-rX-X-..., and the last one is X-X-X-X.... Consequently, quite distinct mixing phenomena are engendered. Furthermore, experiments were also conducted using the first and the last models to verify the simulation results. We infer that the last mixer is more likely to trigger chaos and convection by rotating the contact surface than the first one that merely swings the surface even when the flow rates and viscosities of the two liquid streams are increased. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.