Experimental and numerical studies on the mixing at the intersection of millimetric channels

ETCHEVERRY F.; GOMBA, J. M.; WOLLUSCHEK C.; CACHILE M.

Journal of Physics. C. S.

Institute of Physics

Año: 2011 vol. 296 p. 120121 - 120128

1742-6588

In this work, experimental and numerical results on the effect of diffusion and geometricaldispersion on the mixing of two fluids when interacting at the intersection of confluentchannels are presented. Channels are 4 mm diameter and intersect with an angle =30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180◦. The experimental setup allows to accurately control the caudal andassures a constant flow at both inlets. The mixing properties are studied by injecting pure waterin one inlet and colored water at the other. The effects of the inlet flow and the intersectionangle on the diffusion of ink is analyzed. We observed that the mixing by convection is onlyimportant for = 180◦. For other angles, diffusion is the main mechanism for mixing.