Geometrical optimization of helical flow in grooved micromixers

Owing to the enhancement of surface effects at the micro-scale, patterned grooves on a microchannel floor remain a powerful method to induce helical flows within a pressure driven system. Although there have been a number of numerical studies on geometrical effects concerning fluid mixing within the staggered herringbone mixer, all have focused mainly on the groove angle and depth, two factors that contribute greatly to the magnitude of helical flow. Here we present a new geometrical factor that significantly affects the generation of helical flow over patterned grooves. By varying the ratio of the length of the grooves to the neighboring ridges, helical flow can be optimized for a given groove depth and channel aspect ratio, with up to 50% increases in transverse flow possible. A thorough numerical study of over 700 cases details the magnitude of helical flow over unsymmetrical patterned grooves in a slanted groove micro-mixer, where the optimized parameters for the slanted groove mixer can be translated to the staggered herringbone mixer. The optimized groove geometries are shown to have a large dependence on the channel aspect ratio, the groove depth ratio, and the ridge length.