Micromixing chaotic mixing effect

Mixing in micromixers relies primarily on molecular diffusion or chaotic advection (laminar chaos) mechanisms. As discussed above, the diffusive mixing effect can be improved by increasing the interfacial contact area between the different fluids and reducing the diffusion length between them. The use of unstable electrokinetic flow fields to achieve chaotic mixing effect can also be adopted. 

Chaotic advection can be induced with a 2D alternatively curved microchannel (2D serpentine) [112, 113] or zigzag channel shape [111]. In the first case, the chaotic advection is induced in the curved microchannel by consecutive generation of Dean vortices (Fig. 11a). Typically such type of micromixer can provide an effective mixing only for high Re in the range of few hundreds. These micromixers are generally described using another dimensionless number, the Dean number De) ... 

Another interesting planar structure able to induce chaotic advection has been reported by Hong et al. [126] (Fig. lid). This micromixer comprised a modified tesla structure that redirected the streams, by exploiting the Coanda effect. The authors demonstrated an efficient mixing at relative low Re number Re < 10). 

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