4 research outputs found
Large-Scale Flow in Micro Electrokinetic Turbulent Mixer
In the present work, we studied the three-dimensional (3D) mean flow field in a micro electrokinetic (ÎŒEK) turbulence based micromixer by micro particle imaging velocimetry (ÎŒPIV) with stereoscopic method. A large-scale solenoid-type 3D mean flow field has been observed. The extraordinarily fast mixing process of the ÎŒEK turbulent mixer can be primarily attributed to two steps. First, under the strong velocity fluctuations generated by ÎŒEK mechanism, the two fluids with different conductivity are highly mixed near the entrance, primarily at the low electric conductivity sides and bias to the bottom wall. Then, the well-mixed fluid in the local region convects to the rest regions of the micromixer by the large-scale solenoid-type 3D mean flow. The mechanism of the large-scale 3D mean flow could be attributed to the unbalanced electroosmotic flows (EOFs) due to the high and low electric conductivity on both the bottom and top surface