Open Access
ARTICLE
Novel Micromixer with Complex 3D-Shape Inner Units: Design, Simulation and Additive Manufacturing
Di Wang1, Guangzhao Ye1, Jingming Mai2, Xiaomin Chen1, Yongqiang Yang1,*, Yang Li1,*, Xiaojun Chen1, Jie Chen1
1 School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China
2 Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, 76131, Germany
* Corresponding Authors: Yongqiang Yang. Email: ; Yang Li. Email:
(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Design & simulation in Additive Manufacturing)
Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2020, 123(3), 1061-1077. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmes.2020.09842
Received 30 January 2020; Accepted 30 March 2020; Issue published 28 May 2020
Abstract
In this paper, a novel micromixer with complex 3D-shape inner units
was put forward and fabricated by metal Additive Manufacturing (AM). The
design of the micromixer combined the constraints of selective laser melting technology and the factors to improve mixing efficiency. Villermaux-Dushman reaction system and Compute Fluid Design (CFD) simulation were conducted to
investigate the performance and the mechanism of this novel micromixer to
improve mixing efficiency. The research found that the best mixing efficiency
of this novel micromixer could be gained when the inner units divided fluid into
five pieces with a uniform volume. Compared with a conventional micromixer
without obstacle in the channel, the micromixer designed in this research achieved
higher mixing efficiency and reduce the pressure drop by 10.34%. The mixing
behaviour in this novel micromixer was discussed, which mainly contains two
types: collisions and swirls. Via collisions, the fluid micro masses would hit each
other directly, which broke the boundaries of micro masses and promoted the
interchange of species in the whole flow field. In swirls, the fluid micro masses
were drawn into thin and long slices, which increased the size of the contact area
and enhanced molecule diffusion. Finally, the application scheme of this novel
micromixer was briefly discussed.
Keywords
Cite This Article
Wang, D., Ye, G., Mai, J., Chen, X., Yang, Y. et al. (2020). Novel Micromixer with Complex 3D-Shape Inner Units: Design, Simulation and Additive Manufacturing.
CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, 123(3), 1061–1077.