Mixing enhancement in an acousto-inertial microfluidic system

The achievement of efficient micromixing inside microfluidic devices is crucial to perform biological assays. Slow mass transfer is a limiting factor in these devices. In this paper, a high-throughput acousto-inertial micromixer is proposed to assess the impact of parameters affecting the passive section of the micromixer, including Reynolds number (Re) and curvature radius (rc), as well as the parameters affecting the active section, such as the applied frequency (f) and displacement amplitude (d0). It is found that the background flow in the active section of the micromixer becomes stronger as Re is increased, which suppresses the acoustic streamings, limiting their effect near the sharp edges. The results demonstrate that the second-order velocity is enhanced with f, improving the acoustic field strength and mixing performance. Furthermore, reducing rc and increasing f and d0 improve the mixing performance of the micromixer. The proposed micromixer can be utilized for fast chemical and biological reactions and assays.

Automated summary

This paper proposes a high-throughput acousto-inertial micromixer to evaluate the impact of parameters on the passive and active sections of the micromixer. The results show that increasing the applied frequency improves the mixing performance, while increasing the Reynolds number suppresses the acoustic streamings. Reducing the curvature radius and increasing the applied frequency and displacement amplitude also enhance the mixing performance. The proposed micromixer has potential applications in fast chemical and biological reactions and assays.