NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY WARANGAL

Mechanical Engineering Department

Progress Report (1st year, II semester)

Name of the Research Scholar: T MANOJ KUMAR DUNDI

Roll No: 715035
Full Time / Part Time / QIP: FULL TIME
Date of Registration: 17th July 2015
Name of the supervisor: Dr. V. R. K. RAJU
Name of the Co-Supervisor Dr. V. P. CHANDRAMOHAN
Major Area Research: Mechanical Engineering
Minor Area of Research: Microfluidic Mixing

A) Prof. C.S.P Rao, Head, MED

B) Supervisor: Dr. V. R. K. Raju, Assistant Professor, MED
C) Co-Supervisor: Dr. V. P. Chandramohan, Assistant Professor,MED

C) DSC members:
Members of the DSC:
1. Dr. G. Amba Prasada Rao, Professor, MED.

2. Dr. G. Naga Srinivasulu, Assistant Professor, MED.

3. Dr. Ajey Kumar Patel, Assistant Professor, CED.

Signature of Scholar T MANOJ KUMAR DUNDI

1. Dr. V. R. K. Raju
Signature of supervisor(s)
with date:
2. Dr. V. P. Chandramohan
 Mechanical Engineering Department
National Institute of Technology, Warangal
Date: 02-08-2016

Sub.: Minutes of the Doctorial Scrutiny Committee of T MANOJ KUMAR DUNDI

Roll.No.715035, Full Time research scholar:

Members of the Doctorial Scrutiny Committee:

1. Dr. C.S.P. Rao Professor & Head, MED. Chairman

2. Dr. G.Amba Prasada Rao Professor, MED. Member
3. Dr. G. Naga Srinivasulu Assistant Professor, MED. Member
4. Dr. Ajey Kumar Patel Assistant Professor, Civil Dept. Member
5. Dr. V. P. Chandramohan Assistant Professor, MED. Co-supervisor
6. Dr. V. R. K. Raju Assistant Professor, MED. Supervisor

The DSC of T MANOJ KUMAR DUNDI has met in the chamber of the Head of the
Department of Mechanical Engineering; on 02-08-2016 at 11:30 am to review the progress of research
work. The committee has observed the following:

The candidate submitted a report on the progress of his research work and presented the work carried out
by him with a special emphasis on the work done during the previous semester as given in the progress
report attached. He has also presented the work plan for the next semester. The members are satisfied
with the progress and recommended for the registration of next semester.

Prof. G.Amba Prasada Rao Dr. G. Naga Srinivasulu Dr. Ajey Kumar Patel
(Professor, MED) (Assistant Professor, MED) (Assistant Professor, CED)

Dr. V. R. K. Raju Dr. V. P. Chandramohan

(Assistant Professor, MED) (Assistant Professor, MED)

Prof.C.S.P.Rao
Chairman, DSC & Head, MED.
1. Work carried out in the 1st semester:

Course work

The following courses are completed during the first semester

Course
S.No Course Name Credits Faculty Name Grade
Code

1 Computational Methods in Thermal ME5153 4 Dr. V. R. K. Raju C

Engineering

2 Incompressible and Compressible ME5163 4 Prof. G. R. K. Gupta C

flows

3 Gas Turbines and Jet Propulsion ME5152 4 Prof. G. R. K. Gupta C

4 English for Scientific Communication --- Audit Prof.D.S.Kesava Rao Satisfa

course ctory

1. Work carried out in the Current semester

Introduction

Introduction to Microfluidic mixing

Microfluidic mixer is the most important component in microfluidic systems. In the past two decades,

miniaturization of fluid handling and fluid analysis has been emerging in the interdisciplinary research field

of microfluidics. Microfluidics refers to systems with the characteristic length scales that are in the

micrometer range. The reduced dimensions of the microfluidic system lead to a large surface-to-volume ratio,

which increases heat and mass transfer efficiencies. Micro-reactors can achieve surface-to-volume ratios of

30000 m2.m-3, compared to batch reactors with typical surface-to-volume ratios of 4 m 2.m-3.
The aim of microfluidic mixing is to achieve a thorough and rapid mixing of multiple samples in micro-scale
devices.

Importance of mixing
Micro-scale mixing is of uttermost importance in bio-chemical and chemical analyses using µTAS or lab-on-
chips.Following are some of the applications in which micro-mixers are used
- Protein folding studies that sheds light on the causes of a disease
- DNA micro arrays to collect the genetic information
- cell separation and detection,
- organic synthesis to explore the properties of existing compounds or creating new
- molecules
- reaction kinetic studies of chemical and biological substances
- chemical assays for assessing and measuring the presence of an analyte, the amount or
functional activity of an analyte
Advantages of micro mixing
The reduced dimensions of the microfluidic system lead to a large surface-to-volume ratio, which increases
heat and mass transfer efficiencies. The benefit of consuming only a small amount of the reagents and thus
resulting in great savings on expensive reagents. An improved portability more rapid analysis due to the
small dimensions which results in shorter operation time than the traditional macro-scale counterparts.
Low cost of manufacturing. More straightforward integration with lab-on-chips.

Challenges presently facing

Due to the small dimensions of the micro channels, the flow is predominantly laminar and mixing is therefore
limited by molecular diffusion. Studies of homogeneous kinetics in solution require that a system become
well mixed on a time scale faster than the kinetics of the reaction. It is preferable for most chemical reactions
that the mixing rate is faster than the reaction rate so that the creation of unwanted side products is
minimized. Many biochemical assays, for example DNA microarrays, require that a reagent be brought into
contact with the entirety of a functionalized surface, i.e., that the reagents in the system be well mixed.
Therefore, in order to effectively mix in a reasonable time, fluids must be manipulated so that the interfacial
surface area between the fluids is increased massively and the diffusional path is decreased, enhancing the
molecular diffusion to complete the mixing process.

Types of Micro-mixers
Micromixers can be classified into active and passive mixers.
The active mixer requires external forces such as pneumatic or mechanical vibration to enhance mixing
efficiency. Active mixers use external perturbation to introduce vorticity into laminar flow. Ultrasonics,
pressure field disturbance, thermal, magnetically and electrokinetics driven mixers are a few examples
having been demonstrated to date.
Passive micromixers contain no moving parts and require no energy input other than the pressure head used
to drive the fluid flows at a constant rate. These devices are designed with a channel geometry that increases
the surface area between the different fluids and decreases the diffusion path.
The overwhelming number of currently used micro mixers are passive type due to their robustness, stability
in operation and easily integrable in a more complex system.

Working principle of mixing in passive mixers

In passive mixers the flow itself induces various streams with stretching, splitting, recombination, and at last
diffusive mixing. Due to the dominating laminar flow on the micro scale, mixing in passive mixers relies
mainly on molecular diffusion and chaotic advection. Mixing of species inside the passive mixer is governed
by the following convection-diffusion equation.

∂c/∂t + (V · ∇)c = D∇2c

Flow phenomenon in passive T-mixer
The flow in micro channels is mainly regarded as stratified laminar flow. This is correct for straight channels
with a low flow velocity, i.e., a low Reynolds number flow. For low flow velocities, Re ~10, the flow is
laminar and the streamlines are straight.
The straight laminar flow breaks up when the fluid flows through curves and bends.With increasing flow
velocity the centrifugal forces of the bent flow induce symmetrical vortex pairs at the entrance of the mixing
channel. Centrifugal forces push the fluid from the center of the channel, where the bulk fluid flows with
high velocity, to the outer side.Viscous forces dampen the vortices and the flow becomes laminar again after
a certain distance.
The symmetry of the vortex pairs is broken for even higher Re numbers at the entrance of the mixing
channel and fluid swaps to the opposite side.This asymmetrical flow gives an additional interfacial area for
mass transfer and dramatically increases the mixing quality.
Therefore it is clearly found that at higher Reynolds numbers, quality of mixing has improved to a greater
degree due to vorticity and convective effects.But for higher velocities viz., higher Reynolds numbers to
enhance mixing we require high supply pressures. The high pressures can be a serious challenge for bonding
and interconnection technologies. Further modifications can be carried out based upon a micro T-mixer
design to improve its efficiency, i.e. achieving rapid mixing at a lower applied pressure.

Literature review
The aim of microfluidic mixing is to achieve a thorough and rapid mixing of multiple samples in micro-scale
devices. In such devices, sample mixing is essentially achieved by enhancing the diffusion effect between the
different species flows. Broadly speaking, microfluidic mixing schemes can be categorized as either “active”,
where an external energy force is applied to perturb the sample species, or “passive”, where the contact area
and contact time of the species samples are increased through specially-designed microchannel
configurations.

Micro mixers offer significant advantages over their traditional counterparts, including a reduced reagent
consumption, a more rapid analysis, lower cost, an improved portability, a significant improvement in
performance and a more straightforward integration with other planar bio-chips.

Applications of Micromixers
Micromixers are widely used in chemical, biological and medical analysis fields. Almost every
chemical assay requires mixing of reagents with a sample. The basic T-mixer was used in the work of
Kamholz et al for the measurement of analyte concentrations of a continuous flow. Wu et al used a Y-mixer
for investigating the nonlinear diffusive behavior of a fluorescein. An electrokinetically driven T-mixer was
used in for performing enzyme assays. Fluri et al., combines capillary electrophoresis (CE) separation with a
T-mixer as a post-column reactor. In Vijiayendran et al., micromixers were used for the sample preparation of
a surface-based biosensor. Besides sensing and analysis applications as discussed above, micomixers were
used as a tool for dispersing immiscible liquids and forming micro droplets. Furthermore, micromixers work
as a separator for particles based on their different diffusion coefficients. Some biochemical analyses require
the two reagents to be completely mixed before the reaction has proceeded considerably. This is required in
the reaction kinetics studies of chemical and biological substances and also in protein folding studies. A
mixing time in the region of sub-millisecond is required in order to resolve these fast reactions successfully
or to understand the protein folding process that sheds light on the causes of a disease.

Mixing Enhancement
The diffusive mixing when assisted by vortices and convective effects, which were first studied in
conventional T-shaped micromixers and reported by Kockmann et al., resulted in faster mixing rates.
In Wong et al., it is reported that The presence of small z velocity components in the flow of liquids in the
inlet channels, as well as asymmetrical flow velocities at the inlets and dissimilar viscosity of the two liquids
results in swirling flow that enhances the mixing performance.
A. Soleymani et al. showed that the development of vortices is essential for good mixing performance.
Furthermore, it was shown that the development and occurrence of vortices depends strongly on both volume
flow rates and geometrical parameters of the mixer such as the aspect ratio and mixing angle.

Work done through numerical study of mixing in micro T mixer using Ansys Fluent
Numerical study of mixing process in a micro T-mixer using Ansys Fluent by referring and validating a paper
“convective mixing and its application to micro reactors” reported by Kockmann et al is carried out

The following ‘T’ geometry with the same dimensions used by Nobert Kockmann et al., is used as a micro
mixer geometry for the current study.

Mesh
The hexahedral type of elements with element size of 6 µm is used in meshing the geometry.

Set up
The following models, type of boundary conditions, schemes and residuals are used for the problem
set up.

Models:
Steady laminar flow and species transport models

Boundary conditions:
 Velocity inlet for left and right inlets, pressure outlet for outlet, No slip condition at walls.

Schemes:
SIMPLEC algorithm for pressure velocity coupling, second order discretization schemes for
momentum, species and energy equation.

Residuals:
10^-06 - continuity, momentum and species equations.
10^-16 - energy equation.

The solution is converged for the above residuals.

The following figure shows the grid independency test for the axial velocity profile at the centre line of outlet
face.

In the following way, the results obtained through simulation are compared with the results reported by
Kockmann et al., and validated.

1. Stratified Laminar flow regime

Vm = 0.08 m/s

Re = 12.4

2. Vortex flow regime

 Vm = 0.8 m/s
Re = 125

3. Engulfement flow regime

Vm = 2 m/s

Re = 310

Area of Research

Enhancement of micro-mixing in passive micro mixers at low Reynolds numbers

Objectives
The objective of present study is to investigate the mixing phenomenon in a passive micro T-mixer to find the
possibilities of enhancing mixing in low Reynolds number flow regimes.

Future work
Future work is planned to investigate the possibilities of enhancing mixing in low Reynolds number flow
regimes of passive micromixer, where lower pressures can be used.
a) Asymmetry flow field created by incorporating structures such as a step to induce a larger z velocity
component in the flow of one of the inlets to enhance the swirling of the mixture in the mixing
channel can be incorporated in the micro T-mixer.
b) Various bends in series combined with different aspect ratios and mixing angles might be used to
increase the mixing efficiency at low Reynolds number flows.

References

[1] Nguyen N T and Wereley S T 2002 Fundamentals and Applications of Microfluidics (Boston: Artech House)
[2] Oosterbroek R E and van den Berg A 2003 Lab-on-a-Chip: Miniaturized System for Bio(Chemical) Analysis and Synthesis
(Amsterdam: Elsevier)
[3] Geschke O, Klank H and Telleman P 2004 Microsystem Engineering of Lab-on-a-Chip Devices 2nd edn (New York:
Wiley)
[4] Nguyen N T, Huang X Y and Toh K C 2002 MEMS–micropumps: a review ASME Trans.—J. Fluids Eng. 124384–92
[5] Laser D J and Santiago J G 2004 A review of micropumpsJ. Micromech. Microeng. 11 R35–64
[6] Woias P 2004 Micropumps-past, progress and futureprospects Sensors Actuators B at press
[7] Kakuta M, Bessoth F G and Manz A 2001 Microfabricateddevices for fluid mixing and their application for chemical
synthesis Chem. Rec. 1 395–405
[8] Reyes D R et al 2002 Micro total analysis systems:1. Introduction, theory, and technology Anal. Chem. 742623–36
[9] V. Hessel, H. L¨owe, F. Sch¨onfeld, Chem. Eng. Sci. 60 (2005) 2479–2501.
[10] N. Kockmann, C. F¨oll, P. Woias, Flow regimes and mass transfer characteristics in static micro mixers, SPIE Photonics
West, Micromachining and Microfabrication [4982-38], San Jose, USA, 2003. [15] M. Engler, N. Kockmann, T. Kiefer, P.
Woias, Chem. Eng. J. 101 (2004)315–322.
[11] M. Engler, N. Kockmann, T. Kiefer, P. Woias, Convective mixing and its application to micro reactors, in: Proceedings of
the 2nd International Conference on Micro and Minichannels [ICMM-2412], ASME, Rochester, NY, USA, 2004, 781–788.
[12] G. Trippa, R.J.J. Jachuk, Characterization of mixing efficiency in narrow channels by using the iodide–iodate reaction
system, 2nd Int. Conf. Micro and Minichannels, [ICMM2004-2413], ASME, Rochester, USA, 2004, 789–793.
[13] W.R. Dean, Note on the motion of a fluid in a curved pipe, Philos. Mag. 4 (1927) 208–223.
[14] N. Kockmann, M. Engler, D. Haller, P. Woias, Heat Trans. Eng. 26 (2005) 71–78.
Hardt, S., Drese, K., Hessel, V., & Schönfeld, F. (2004, January). Passive micro mixers for applications in the micro reactor
and µTAS field. In ASME 2004 2nd International Conference on Microchannels and Minichannels (pp. 45-55). American
Society of Mechanical Engineers.
[15] N. Kockmann, M. Engler, C. F¨oll, P. Woias, Liquid mixing in static micro mixers with various cross-sections, in: S.G.
Kandlikar (Ed.), Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Micro- and Minichannels ASME, Rochester, 2003
(ICMM2003-1121).

T Manoj Kumar Dundi.

Research Scholar
Roll No: 715035

Dr. V. R. K. Raju Dr. V. P. Chandramohan

Asst. Professor, MED Asst. Professor, MED
(Supervisor) (Supervisor)