Numerical investigation of the effects of geometric parameters on transverse motion with slanted-groove micro-mixers

We investigated hydrodynamic phenomena inside several passive microfluidic mixers using a Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) based on particle mesoscopic kinetic equations. Mixing processes were simulated in a Slanted grooved micro-mixer (SGM), a Staggered herringbone grooved micro-mixer (SHM), and a Bi-layered staggered herringbone grooved micro-mixer (BSHM). Then, the effects of six geometric mixer parameters (i.e., groove height to channel height ratio, groove width to groove pitch length ratio, groove pitch to groove height ratio, groove intersection angle, herringbone groove asymmetric ratio and bi-layered groove asymmetric ratio) on mixing were investigated using computed cross-flow velocity and helicity density distributions in the flow cross-section. We demonstrated that helicity density provides sufficient information to analyze micro helical motion within a micro-mixer, allowing for micro-mixer design optimization.