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Published January 11, 2019 | Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

3D Printed Microfluidic Mixers—A Comparative Study on Mixing Unit Performances

Abstract

One of the basic operations in microfluidic systems for biological and chemical applications is the rapid mixing of different fluids. However, flow profiles in microfluidic systems are laminar, which means molecular diffusion is the only mixing effect. Therefore, mixing structures are crucial to enable more efficient mixing in shorter times. Since traditional microfabrication methods remain laborious and expensive, 3D printing has emerged as a potential alternative for the fabrication of microfluidic devices. In this work, five different passive micromixers known from literature are redesigned in comparable dimensions and manufactured using high‐definition MultiJet 3D printing. Their mixing performance is evaluated experimentally, using sodium hydroxide and phenolphthalein solutions, and numerically via computational fluid dynamics. Both experimental and numerical analysis results show that HC and Tesla‐like mixers achieve complete mixing after 0.99 s and 0.78 s, respectively, at the highest flow rate (Reynolds number (Re) = 37.04). In comparison, Caterpillar mixers exhibit a lower mixing rate with complete mixing after 1.46 s and 1.9 s. Furthermore, the HC mixer achieves very good mixing performances over all flow rates (Re = 3.7 to 37.04), while other mixers show improved mixing only at higher flow rates.

Additional Information

© 2018 WILEY‐VCH. Issue Online: 11 January 2019; Version of Record online: 10 December 2018; Manuscript revised: 18 November 2018; Manuscript received: 17 October 2018. The authors acknowledge the financial support of the German Research Foundation (DFG) via the Emmy Noether Programme (346772917). Furthermore, the authors would like to thank Phil Oliver Thiel for his work as part of his bachelor's thesis. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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September 21, 2023
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