Numerical and experimental investigations of liquid mixing in T-type micromixers

Three-dimensional numerical simulation was performed to study the flow dynamics and mixing characteristics of liquids inside T-type micromixers. The effects of various operating and design parameters on the flow dynamics and the quality of mixing were investigated qualitatively in order to optimize the mixing. Simulation results indicated that the development of vortices is essential to achieve good mixing performance. Furthermore, it was shown that the development and occurrence of vortices strongly depends on the flow rate and the geometrical parameters of the mixer, such as the aspect ratio, mixing angle and throttle size. Experiments showed that the quality of mixing in the new mixers was significantly better than in ordinary T-mixers.