Study on the Mixing Performance Inside a Micromixer by Using Rapid-Prototyping Technology and Micro-LIF System

In this study a newly fabricated micromixer is proposed. This design comprises periodically arranged simple blocks. In this configuration, the stirring is greatly enhanced at a certain parameter set. This device is fabricated by rapid prototyping technology, stereolithography method, so that we can reduce the R&D time and cost. To characterize the flow field and the stirring effect both the numerical and experimental methods were employed. To obtain the material deformation, three-dimensional numerical computation to the Navier Stokes equations are performed by using a commercial code, FLUENT 6.0. Numerical results show that materials are deformed by the counter clockwise spiral motion of the secondary flows. In the experiment, flow visualization for the stirring effect is performed by using pure water in one reservoir and water mixed with a fluorescent dye in the other, so that we can see the flow motion inside the microchannel. The numerical and experiment results show that the stirring is significantly enhanced at larger block-height. We assert that we can apply the rapid-prototyping technology in the micro fabrication.