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Application of direct fluid flow oscillations to improve mixing in microbioreactors
Author(s) -
Li X.,
van der Steen G.,
van Dedem G. W. K.,
van der Wielen L. A. M.,
van Leeuwen M.,
van Gulik W. M.,
Heijnen J. J.,
Ottens M.,
Krommenhoek E. E.,
Gardeniers J. G. E.,
van den Berg A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.11880
Subject(s) - microreactor , microchannel , mixing (physics) , mechanics , fluid dynamics , flow (mathematics) , convection , diffusion , computational fluid dynamics , convective mixing , chemistry , materials science , thermodynamics , physics , biochemistry , quantum mechanics , catalysis
This article describes an active mixing method for a microbioreactor that was designed, simulated, tested, and successfully implemented. By applying a varying pressure to a microchannel looping tangentially into a cylindrical microreactor an oscillating fluid flow was shown to occur. Such an oscillating fluid flow improved mixing, both by diffusion and convection. The oscillating fluid flow has a large impact on the ratio between the diffusion domain and the convection domain. A good match was obtained between experimental mixing results, computational fluid dynamics simulation results and the results of a simplified mixing model thus demonstrating the potential of simulation on improving the design of microreactors. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2009