Application of Split Flow Design Technique to Simple Microchannel Geometries for Enhanced Mixing

The ability to control mixing of reagents in MEMS systems is crucial for many biological and chemical analysis applications. However mixing in these microfluidic devices is a challenge because the flows are laminar corresponding to very low Reynolds number. In this paper mixing of such reagents in simple microchannel geometries is investigated computationally. A novel concept of “split flow design” is applied to these simple microchannel configurations. Significant improvement in mixing is seen by employing the split flow design technique.