RESEARCH PAPER

Y. C. Lam X. Chen C. Yang

Depthwise averaging approach to cross-stream mixing
in a pressure-driven microchannel ow
Received: 1 August 2004 / Accepted: 18 October 2004 / Published online: 11 May 2005
Springer-Verlag 2005
Abstract Microuidic devices have many potential
applications, such as BioMEMs (microelectromechani-
cal systems for biomedical applications), miniature fuel
cells, and microchannel cooling of electronic circuitry.
One of the important considerations of microuidic
devices for analytical and bioanalytical chemistry is the
dispersion of solutes. In this study, the dispersion of
passive analyte between two miscible uids of similar
properties in a side-by-side pressure-driven creeping ow
is examined. This study represents a rst eort in
applying the lubrication approximation together with
the depthwise averaging method to analyze mass trans-
port of passive analyte in a two-stream rectangular mi-
crochannel with consideration of the Taylor-Aris
dispersion eect.
Keywords Mass diusion/convection transport
Microuidics Pressure-driven ow Taylor-Aris
dispersion
List of symbols
g Viscosity of uid (Pa s)
" u Averaged velocity of uid (m/s)
u Velocity deviation from averaged velocity of
uid (m/s)
p Pressure (Pa)
m Kinetic viscosity (m
2
/s)
f Function describing distribution of quantity
of interest in depthwise direction
L Length of rectangular slit in microuidic
device (m)
D Molecular diffusion coefcient of analyte
(m
2
/s)
x, y, z Cross-stream (width), depthwise (height),
and axial (length) directions of microuidic
ow, respectively
/ Molar concentration of sample analyte at
any given point in microuidic device (M)
/
0
Molar concentration of sample analyte at
inlet stream (M)
D
eff
Effective dispersion coefcient of sample
analyte (m
2
/s)
u
x
, u
y
, u
z
Velocity components of the uid in the x, y,
and z directions, respectively (m/s)
Q Flow rate of the uid (m
3
/s)
W Width of rectangular slit in microuidic de-
vice (m)
H Height of rectangular slit in microuidic
device (m)
b Half height of rectangular slit in microuidic
device (m)
/* Dimensionless concentration of analyte
/

"
/
_
/
0
_ _
z* Dimensionless length of microuidic device
(z*=z/L)
x* Dimensionless width of microuidic device
(x*=x/W)
Pe Peclet number Pe " uW=D
1 Introduction
Research in microuidic devices and components has
been stimulated over the past decades due to its
increasing importance to analytical and biomedical
technologies (Darwin et al. 2002; Pierre et al. 2002).
Examples of manipulation of uids in microuidic de-
vices include dynamic cell separations (Chiu et al. 2000;
Li et al. 2000), surface patterning of cells and proteins
Y. C. Lam X. Chen
SingaporeMIT Alliance Programme,
Nanyang Technological University, 639798, Singapore
Y. C. Lam (&) X. Chen C. Yang
School of Mechanical and Production Engineering,
Nanyang Technological University, 639798, Singapore
E-mail: myclam@ntu.edu.sg
Tel.: +65-67905866
Fax: +65-68627215
Microuid Nanouid (2005) 1: 218226
DOI 10.1007/s10404-004-0013-8
(David et al. 2002), delivery modules for mass spec-
trometers (Chan et al. 1999; Jacobson et al. 1999), and
the mixing of analytes. In nearly every microuidic
format, diusion of analytes or particles is one of the
fundamental aspects in microuidics.
Flows driven by an external electric eld based on
electroosmosis (Jeon et al. 2000) and an applied pressure
gradient (Tallarek et al. 2000) are two methods com-
monly used for continuous ow in microchannel devices.
Electroosmotic ow has a wide range of applications as
it has a uniform ow velocity prole and no moving
parts (Yang et al. 2002). However, it is limited to polar
solvents and may lead to sample damage due to Joule
heating under certain conditions. In diusional devices,
pressure-driven ow is usually employed due to its rel-
ative ease, exibility of fabrication, and insensitivity to
surface contamination, ionic strength, controllable dif-
fusion, etc. Such a kind of ow with continuous input in
a microuidic rectangular slit generates additional
complexity in the distribution of analytes because of the
parabolic velocity gradient across the thickness dimen-
sion (Probstein 1994). In addition, the breadth of such a
distribution is decreased or increased by diusion across
the velocity gradient. As such, the distribution is highly
dependent on the dispersion mechanism of an analyte.
Phenomena specic to pressure-driven side-by-side ow
in a microchannel with continuous input are only
beginning to be investigated (Kamholz et al. 1999;
Kamholz and Yager 2001, 2002; Weigl and Yager 1999;
Ismagilov et al. 2000; Brody et al. 1997; Holden et al.
2003a; 2003b; Virginie et al. 2002; Beard 2001; Dorfman
and Brenner 2001).
One device in which diusion plays a crucial role is
the Y-shaped structure (Kamholz and Yager 2001;
Weigl and Yager 1999; Ismagilov et al. 2000), which
utilizes the interdiusion of analytes from two or more
input streams to produce an analyte concentration
change. The ow is strictly laminar and the mass
transport between the analyte solution streams occurs
side-by-side through interdiusion because of very low
Reynolds numbers. Brody et al. (1997) presented some
examples of the design of a microuidic device for bio-
logical processes. Kamholz et al. (1999) proposed a one-
dimensional analytical model to quantitatively describe
molecular diusion in the microchannel of a T-sensor by
neglecting axial diusion. In a subsequent work, a the-
oretical analysis of the scaling law in the absence of axis
diusion of the T-sensor based on molecular diusion
was presented (Kamholz and Yager 2001). Molecular
diusion between the two pressure-driven laminar ows
at high Peclet numbers was experimentally and theo-
retically presented by Ismagilov (2000). They illustrated
the eects of high aspect ratio microchannel geometry
on diusion in a two-uid stream ow by using a scaling
law. A curved shape for the interdiusion region as ow
proceeds was proposed. This is due to increased diu-
sion time near the wall (where the one-third power law
dominates). They also pointed out that, very far down
stream, under the conditions of high Peclet numbers, the
dependence of the diusion layer thickness in the
depthwise direction diminishes (where the one-half
power law dominates). However, they only presented
their ndings qualitatively. Holden et al. (2003a, 2003b)
developed an approximate model based on the channel
streamwise velocity to predict molecular diusion be-
tween two side-by-side uids. However, in their model,
they neglected the enhanced axial diusion due to
inhomogeneous velocity gradients along the depthwise
direction (i.e., the Taylor-Aris dispersion). In parallel
with the theoretical development, the nite element and
nite dierence methods were widely employed to solve
the coupled Navier-Stokes and diusionconvection
equations to describe the mass transport between uid
ows of two similar liquids (Kamholz and Yager 2002;
Virginie et al. 2002; Beard 2001; Dorfman and Brenner
2001). However, the main diculty encountered in the
numerical calculations is the so-called numerical diu-
sion, which is associated with low values of diusion
coecients. This is known as pseudo-diusion, which
introduces inaccuracy in the computed results. Although
the use of very ne meshes can decrease numerical dif-
fusion, these ne meshes would result in severe compu-
tational limitations, such as lengthy computational time
and large memory requirements.
Taylor dispersion (Taylor 1953, 1954) is a phenome-
non associated with the ow of two miscible uids.
Taylor (1953) showed that, even though the axial dif-
fusion is small, the combined eects of axial convection
and lateral diusion could be important in a circular
tube. Taylors results were later veried and extended by
Aris (1956) and Barton (1983) using the method of
moment, and by Brenner and Edwards (1993) using the
multiple pole expansion. Doshi et al. (1978) obtained an
asymptotic value of convection coecient as the aspect
ratio of rectangular conduit increases. Giddings and
Schure (1978) and Dutta Leighton 2001, 2002, 2003)
investigated the edge eect of the channel on dispersion
reduction. Stone (1989) studied heat and mass transport
from two-dimensional surface lms to a uid undergo-
ing a simple shear ow and analogs to convective and
diusive transport. However, the analysis is based on a
numerical approach.
In this study, we studied analytically the dispersion of
passive analyte between two miscible uids of similar
properties in a side-by-side pressure-driven creeping ow
in a rectangular microchannel. The so-called depthwise
averaging method is used to consider the axis dispersion
of a solute along the axial direction. A two-dimensional
analytical solution in terms of axis dispersion was pro-
posed to simulate long duration convection and diu-
sion transport in a pressure-driven creeping ow for a
rectangular shape slit. The eect of the geometry of the
microuidic slit was analyzed through the solution of the
species mass conservative equation. This approach can
predict axial dispersion and does not have the short-
comings of numerical methods, such as numerical dif-
fusion at the interface between the two uids and/or
signicant computational requirements.
219
2 Mathematical formulations
2.1 Fully developed velocity
Consider two-stream pressure-driven ow side-by-side
between two parallel plates of a distance 2b apart (see
Fig. 1), with a volumetric ow rate Q. A Cartesian
coordinate system is utilized. In a microuidic device,
due to the low velocity of the ow and micron-sized
channels, the Reynolds number (Re) relating the inertial
forces to the viscous forces is usually small (Kamholz
et al. 1999). This means that viscous forces play a
dominant role in microchannels rather than inertia. For
simplicity, the ow down the microchannel is treated
generally as if it were ow between innite parallel
plates. This approximation has been justied by the
large aspect ratio (the ratio of width W to height H) of
the rectangular cross-section, which is around 13:1 in the
present study. The dierence in the average velocity
between that with and without side-wall eect is less
than 5% when the channel aspect ratio is larger than 10
(Doshi et al. 1978; Schlichting 1979). When Re(1, the
fully developed velocity prole in the axial direction in a
rectangular microchannel structure can be derived from
the Navier-Stokes equation under the lubrication ap-
proximation and no-slip condition at the wall, given as
(Bird et al. 1960):
u
z
y
@P
@z
b
2
2g
1
y
b
_ _
2
_ _
1
2.2 Mass transport of passive analyte in the microuidic
slit
2.2.1 Concentration distribution of analyte
The molecular diusion equation, with the associated
Cartesian coordinate system, is employed to describe the
mass transfer of analyte within the microuidic domain
(see Fig. 1). The solution to this equation is derived
using the depthwise averaging method (Bird et al. 1960).
The advantage of this method is the elimination of the
depthwise dependence in the molecular diusion equa-
tion by introducing an eective transport coecient.
This eective transport parameter characterizes the
convectivediusive transport in the microuidic device
domain.
In the microuidic slit, the concentration eld / of an
analyte in a homogenous uid, without bulk reactions, is
governed by the mass species conservation equation
(Aris 1956). The system is modeled using the assump-
tions that the solution is homogenous and that the
analyte concentration is dilute. The model also assumes
constant density and diusivity. In order to apply the
mass species conservation equation, it is assumed that
the species move at the local uid velocity of the fully
developed ow. Based on these assumptions, the species
concentration equation can be expressed as:
@/
@t
u
z
@/
@z
D
@
2
/
@x
2

@
2
/
@y
2

@
2
/
@z
2
_ _
2
2.2.2 Dispersion calculation with depthwise averaging
The interplay of convection and diusion is crucial in
many microuidic applications. Due to the Taylor dis-
persion eect, the spreading of an injected analyte in a
pressure-driven Poiseuille ow generally occurs in the
axial direction much more rapidly than that predicted by
considering molecular diusion only. Taylor dispersion
occurs at longer times because molecular diusion al-
lows suspended species to cross streamlines that have
dierent speeds. In this study, an average analysis (Bird
et al. 1960; Slattery 1981) is used, wherein, it is conve-
nient to work with the depthwise average
"
f 2b
1
_
b
b
f dy; where f is a function describing the
distribution of the quantity of interest in the depthwise
direction. The depthwise averaging method can tackle
problems in which the physical variables, e.g., concen-
tration, in mass transport are only cross-stream and
axial-dependent, but their variation in the depthwise
direction can be neglected. Thus, the y-dependent con-
Fig. 1 Geometry of Y-shape
analytical device, with side-by-
side two-uid ow. Diusion of
analyte occurs across original
interface (dened by dotted
lines) between two uids.
Dimensions for the rectangular
slit are: length L=2 mm; width
W=400 lm; half-height
b=15 lm
220
centration can be eliminated by the averaged quantity
"
f :
Application of this average to the hydrodynamic veloc-
ity prole gives "u
@P
@z
_ _
b
2
3g
_ _
:
It is conceptually useful to work in terms of averages
and deviations. Thus, we dene u
z
y "u u
0
y and
/ x; y; z; t
"
/ x; z; t /
0
x; y; z; t ; and substitute them
into Eq. 2 to obtain:
@
"
/
@t

@/
0
@t
"u
@
"
/
@z
u
0
@
"
/
@z
"u
@/
0
@z
u
0
@/
0
@z
D
@
2 "
/
@x
2

@
2 "
/
@z
2
_ _
D
@
2
/
0
@x
2

@
2
/
0
@y
2

@
2
/
0
@z
2
_ _
3
Depthwise averaging of Eq. 2 leads to the mean con-
vectivediusion equation:
@
"
/
@t
"u
@
"
/
@z
D
@
2 "
/
@x
2

@
2 "
/
@z
2
_ _
u
0
@/
0
@z
4
The additional contribution to the eective diusion of
the solute arises from the uctuation generated ux
u
0
@/
0
@z
: u
0
y is given as:
u
0
y
@P
@z
b
2
6g
1 3
y
b
_ _
2
_ _
5
In order to derive the equation governing /, we subtract
Eq. 4 from Eq. 3 to obtain:
@/
0
@t
u
0
@
"
/
@z
"u
@/
0
@z
u
0
@/
0
@z
D
@
2
/
0
@x
2

@
2
/
0
@y
2

@
2
/
0
@z
2
_ _
u
0
@/
0
@z
6
Due to the long duration characteristic of diusion, the
eect will only be signicant when the ow length is
relatively large, i.e., L )"ub
2
_
D; and because u
0
O "u
while /
0
(
"
/; then Eq. 6 simplies to:
u
0
@
"
/
@z
% D
@
2
/
0
@y
2
7
The form of Eq. 7 was rst introduced by Taylor (1953),
who showed that the variation of the analyte in the
depthwise (y direction) is proportional to the axial
concentration gradient: a balance between convection in
the axial direction and the diusion in the depthwise
direction, and it results in a curvilinear-shape in the
interface. Since u is known, the additional contribution
due to velocity variation from the average velocity can
be expressed as:
u
0
@/
0
@z

2
105
@P
@z
_ _
2
b
6
9g
2
D
_ _
@
2 "
/
@z
2
8
For continuous species transport in a microuidic de-
vice, the quasi-steady state and the long channel
approximation are two assumptions that were made
previously, and they will also be assumed here. Thus, the
steady species transport Eq. 4, by considering the Tay-
lor-Aris dispersion, is reduced to:
"u
@
"
/
@z
D
@
2 "
/
@x
2
D
eff
@
2 "
/
@z
2
9
where the eective diusivity coecient is dened as
1
:
D
eff
D 1
Pe
2
210
H
W
_ _
2
_ _
10
The above expression is identical to that previously
obtained by Wooding (1960), who studied the instability
of a viscous liquid of variable density distribution in a
vertical channel, the cross-section of which is a thin
rectangle. In his investigation, Taylor-Aris dispersion
was neglected because (PeH/W)
2
210.
Following the scaling analysis of Ismagilov et al.
(2000), under the long duration characteristic, the mass
transport in the cross-stream and axial directions is
similar to simple diusion and gives rise to the one-half
relation of diusion. However, it should be noted that
the parameters which support this relationship in the
axial and cross-stream directions is dierent. In the axial
direction, the parameter is the eective diusivity, i.e.,
the enhanced apparent diusivity (Eq. 10). In the cross-
stream direction, the parameter is the molecular diu-
sivity, which is the same as that in the previous investi-
gation of Ismagilov et al. (2000). It provides physical
insights into the mass dispersion process. The induced
Taylor diusivity D
T
"u
2
H
2
=210D, measures the ratio
of the axial convection to the intensity of mixing and will
produce the enhanced mixing in the axial direction.
The following initial and boundary conditions are
applied:
B.C.1: / x; z j
z0
0; 0 6 x \W =2 11a
B.C.2 : / x; z
z0
j /
0
; W = 2 \x 6W 11b
B.C.3 :
@/
@z
x;zL

0;
@/
@x
x0;z

0;
@/
@x
xW ;z

0
11c
By using /
"
/
_
/
0
_ _
; z z=L ; x x=W ; and
Pe "uW =D ; the dimensionless form of Eq. 9 can be
written as:
Pe
W
L
_ _
@/

@z

@
2
/

@x

2

D
eff
D
W
L
_ _
2
@
2
/

@z

2
12
Similarly, the initial and boundary conditions (Eqs. 11a,
11b, 11c) can also be expressed in a dimensionless form
as:
1
A similar investigation was carried out by Beard (2001). However,
the derivation of Eq. 10, and the associated equations, was incor-
rect. A detailed discussion can be found in Dorfman and Brenner
(2001).
221
B.C.1 : /

; z

z0
j 0; 0 6 x \1=2 13a
B.C.2 : /

; z

z0
j 1; 1=2 \x 61 13b
B.C.3 :
@/
@z
x;z1

0;
@/
@x
x0;z

0;
@/
@x
x1;z

0
13c
An analytical solution of Eq. 12 with boundary
conditions (Eqs. 13a, 13b, 13c) can be obtained by using
the separation of variables method:
/
1
2

2
p

1
n1
1
n1
2n 1
cos
2n 1 px
W
_ _
w
n
z 14
where:
w
n
z
e
k
2
z
k
2
=k
1
e
k
2
k
1
Lk
1
z
1 k
2
=k
1
e
k
2
k
1
L
15a
k
1;2

Pe
2W

Pe
2
4W
2

D
D
eff
2n 1
2
p
2
W
2
_ _
1=2
15b
2.3 Two special cases
2.3.1 Without axial diusion nor Taylor-Aris dispersion
If there is no axial diusion and Taylor-Aris dispersion
(i.e., D
e
is zero), the streamwise diusion is negligible
compared to the cross-stream diusion (i.e.,
2
/*/
z*
2

2
/*/x*
2
). Thus, Eq. 12 can be reduced to the
following form:
Pe
W
L
_ _
@/

@z

@
2
/

@x

2
16
Using boundary conditions in Eqs. 13a, 13b, 13c, the
analytical solution to Eq. 16 is:
/
1
2

2
p

1
n1
1
n1
2n 1
cos
2n 1 px
W
_ _
e
2n1 p
2 z
WPe
17
which is the same as that obtained by Holden et al.
(2003).
2.3.2 With axial diusion and without Taylor-Aris
dispersion
In this situation, Eq. 12 can be written in the following
form:
Pe
W
L
_ _
@/

@z

@
2
/

@x
2

W
L
_ _
2
@
2
/

@z
2
18
The solution to Eq. 18 is of the same form as that given
by Eq. 14, with the eective diusivity D
e
replaced by
the mass diusivity D.
3 Results and discussion
In this study, the Y-shape microuidic slit, which could
be made from silica, has a length L=2 mm, width
W=400 lm, and height H=30 lm (see Fig. 1). As an
illustration, one could imagine the situation where a
syringe pump is used to inject two dierent uids with
and without a diusible analyte, respectively, in the two
entrances of the device. The channel on the right-hand-
side contains the diusible analyte with concentration
/
0
, while the channel on the left-hand-side has no dif-
fusible analyte. In between, the channel holds a mixing
zone. The two working uids are assumed to have the
same molecular diusion of D=10
10
m
2
/s. Parametric
studies, including length and height of the device and
Peclet number, are carried out to quantitatively predict
the concentration proles of analyte in the slit.
Figure 2 shows a comparison of concentration pro-
les at the slit exit for three dierent cases: (1) with
axial diusion and Taylors dispersion (Eq. 12); (2)
without axial diusion and without Taylors dispersion
(Eq. 16); and (3) with axial diusion and without
Taylors dispersion (Eq. 18). From Fig. 2, we can ob-
serve that the inter-diusion between the two uids
decreases with consideration of the Taylor-Aris dis-
persion (Eq. 12). The presence of the Taylor-Aris dis-
persion enhances the axial diusion (or mixing in the
axial direction). However, the Taylor-Aris dispersion
reduces the cross-stream diusion between these two
uids. Thus, it will result in a sharp transition of
concentration prole between these two uids in com-
parison with the two cases without Taylor-Aris dis-
persion, as shown in Fig. 2. The reason is that the
Fig. 2 Concentration prole with and without Taylor-Aris disper-
sion and axial diusion at exit section of right side of device. Peclet
number (Pe)=400, molecular diusion coecient D=10
10
m
2
/s
222
actual diusion is a function of velocity for a given
ow length. For a parabolic velocity distribution in the
channel, the average diusion is less with the Taylor-
Aris dispersion than that without by using the average
velocity "u as the reference. This is reected in the
correction of the diusivity D
e
, which is one order of
magnitude larger than D. In addition, molecular dif-
fusion in the axial direction as the ow proceeds has
little eect on the concentration prole between the
two uids, i.e., the results of Eqs. 16 and 18 are similar,
as shown in Fig. 2.
Figure 3 shows a plot of the eective diusivity
coecients ratio (D
e
/D) versus the channels height to
Fig. 3 Plot of eective diusivity coecient D
e
versus ratio of
channel height to width ratio (H/W) for dierent Peclet numbers
Fig. 4 Evolution of analyte concentration proles at three dierent
sections along the axial direction with axial diusion and Taylor-
Aris dispersion. Peclet number (Pe)=300, molecular diusion
coecient D=10
10
m
2
/s
Fig. 5 Concentration proles at the slit exit for dierent Peclet
numbers. Molecular diusion coecient D=10
10
m
2
/s, with axial
diusion and Taylor-Aris dispersion
Fig. 6a, b Concentration evolution of interdiusion zone with
two dierent Peclet numbers. a Pe=800. b Pe=150. Molecular
diusion coecient D=10
10
m
2
/s, with axial diusion and
Taylor-Aris dispersion
223
width ratio (H/W) for dierent Peclet numbers (Pe).
This plot represents the dependence of the eective dif-
fusivity coecient D
e
on Pe and H/W, as given by
Eq. 10. With increasing values of Pe and H/W, (D
e
/D)
increases gradually and monotonously. In this case
where H/W=0.25 and Pe ranges from 1 to 1,000, D
e
/D
varies from 1 to 300 accordingly. With a large ratio of
(D
e
/D), the inhomogeneous velocity prole contributes
much more than molecular diusion to the total analyte
diusion in the axial direction.
We will now focus our attention on the situation
where both axial and Taylors dispersion are consid-
ered, namely, Eq. 12. Figure 4 shows the evolution of
the concentration prole at three dierent sections
(z=0, z=0.25L, z=L) along the axial direction. At the
entrance (z=0.0), the uid on the right side contains a
diusible analyte that is assumed to be uniform. At
position z=0.25L, one can observe the evolution of
concentration due to interdiusion between the two
side-by-side uids (see Fig. 4). At the exit section
(z=1.0), interdiusion is more pronounced. It also can
be observed that the cross-stream diusive broadening
is proportional to the distance along the axial direc-
tion.
Figure 5 shows the concentration variation along the
cross-stream direction. As the Peclet number increases,
the reduction in the mixing area of the concentration
prole across the contact interface can be observed. In
addition, the evolution of the interdiusion zone during
ow with dierent Peclet numbers for the rectangular
slit is shown in Fig. 6. As expected, the diusible analyte
broadens further down stream due to the longer
residence time of the diusible analyte. As the Peclet
number decreases, the diusible analyte also broadens at
the contact interface of the two streams. This is because
the residence time of the diusible analyte with a smaller
Peclet number is longer than that with a larger Peclet
number.
As a bench mark solution for the dispersion of a
passive analyte in a microuidic slit, a solution table for
the three analytical models with and without Taylor
dispersion and axial diusion at two dierent locations,
points A and B (at the middle and the exit sections on
the right wall, respectively, see Fig. 1), under dierent
Pelect numbers is presented in Table 1. The results show
that there is no signicant dierence (relative error
e
r3
<1%) between the results with and without Taylor
dispersion (Eqs. 12 and 18, respectively) for low Peclet
numbers (Pe<35). As the Elect number increases, there
are signicant dierences in the analyte concentration at
the exit of the slit due to Taylors dispersion. The re-
duction of the relative error e
r1
with an increase in ow
length suggests that axial diusion has little eect on the
diusion of analyte in the cross-stream as the ow length
increases.
The concentration distributions along the left and
right walls are shown in Fig. 7 for dierent Peclet
numbers. For higher Peclet number (Pe), the mixing
eciency is reduced due to shorter residence time. For
instance, for Pe=40, the mixing of the two solutions is
incomplete at the end of the channel (C
left
=0.304,
C
right
=0.696). However, for Pe=1, it can be observed
that there is complete mixing of the two solutions at the
end of the channel (C
left
=0.50, C
right
=0.50). For low
Peclet numbers (Pe), the mixing eciency increases due
to longer residence time.
Table 1 Comparison of results for three dispersion models
Location
(z=l/L) at
the right wall
(see Fig. 1)
Peclet number
(Pe)
Normalized concentration (%),
"
/ 0:5
Model 1 (Eq. 16) Model 2 (Eq. 18) Model 3 (Eq. 12)
/
1
e
r1

/
1
/
2
j j
"
/
(%) /
2
/
3
e
r3

/
3
/
2
j j
"
/
(%)
A (z=0.5) 10 0.553989 2.45 0.566257 0.566628 7.42E-02
20 0.685389 1.09 0.690833 0.693228 5.10E-01
30 0.779567 4.74E-01 0.781937 0.787298 1.07
40 0.842723 2.06E-01 0.843753 0.852250 1.70
50 0.886156 7.10E-02 0.886511 0.897803 2.26
60 0.916736 0 0.916736 0.930135 2.68
70 0.938631 3.62E-02 0.938450 0.953095 2.93
80 0.954500 5.30E-02 0.954235 0.969242 3.00
90 0.966105 5.84E-02 0.965813 0.980397 2.92
100 0.974653 5.78E-02 0.974364 0.987913 2.71
B (z=1.0) 10 0.504578 5.78E-01 0.507468 0.507551 1.66E-02
20 0.553989 9.14E-01 0.558561 0.560027 2.93E-01
30 0.622884 7.06E-01 0.626414 0.631266 9.70E-01
40 0.685389 5.07E-01 0.687923 0.697526 1.92
50 0.737244 3.68E-01 0.739084 0.754156 3.01
60 0.779567 2.73E-01 0.780931 0.801696 4.15
70 0.814196 2.05E-01 0.815222 0.841501 5.26
80 0.842723 1.56E-01 0.843501 0.874773 6.25
90 0.866392 1.19E-01 0.866985 0.902444 7.09
100 0.886156 9.02E-02 0.886607 0.925247 7.73
224
4 Conclusions
This study provides an analytical solution for the dif-
fusion between two-stream uids in a rectangular mi-
crouidic slit. Since diusion dominates cross-stream
transport and convection dominates axial transport, it
is reasonable to simplify the three-dimensional situa-
tion to two-dimensional mean convectivediusion
equations for a high aspect ratio system. This is
achieved by introducing an eective dispersion coe-
cient, which can be several orders greater than the
molecular diusion coecient. Two-dimensional ana-
lytical solutions for a pressure-driven side-by-side ow
in a rectangular slit are obtained based on convection
and diusion transport, with specic attention paid to
the importance of the Taylor-Aris dispersion resulting
from depthwise inhomogeneous velocity gradients. In
addition, the eects of various parameters on the
concentration proles of analyte in a microuidic slit
are provided and examined.
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