Document Type : Original Research Article

Author

• Narges Jafari Ghahfarokhi

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

Micromixers play a pivotal role in microfluidic systems, enabling efficient fluid mixing with applications that include swift pollutant detection in environmental monitoring, improved reaction kinetics in chemical synthesis, and accurate reagent preparation for diagnostic purposes. The Coanda effect, a phenomenon where fluid jets stick to curved surfaces due to pressure differences, enhances fluid mixing efficiency in micromixers. This effect is particularly useful in chemical, medicinal, and microfluidic applications, ensuring precise and uniform mixing. A passive micromixer based on the Coanda effect is proposed in this paper. There are eight mixing units in this micromixer. The results indicate that the mixing index (MI) value is raised from around 35% to about 80% by increasing the number of mixing units from 1 to 8. In other words, increasing the number of mixing units from one to eight results in an MI improvement of almost 128%. The findings show that the quantity of pressure drop (ΔP) increases dramatically as the number of mixing units is increased.

Keywords

• Microfluidics
• Micromixer
• Coanda effect
• Mixing index
• Pressure drop