Hydrodynamic characterisation of layered herringbone microchannels

Abstract

The performance of a layered herringbone microstructured channel is compared with the staggered herringbone micromixer (SHM) originally proposed by Stroock et al. (2002). The layered configuration uses a single set of herringbone structures for two adjacent channels. Mixing and residence time distributions (RTDs) are studied both theoretically, via computational fluid dynamics and particle tracking algorithms, and experimentally. Experimental RTD measurements were performed by monitoring the concentration of a tracer dye by means of a LED-photodiode system. The proposed layered design gives similar results in terms of mixing and RTD as the standard SHM and it outperforms the behaviour of a rectangular channel.