Numerical and experimental investigations on micromixers geometries for high ratio flow rates

The micromixers presented here were designed to be implemented into a pH lab-on-a-chip (LOC) with a flow rate ratio of 19:1. The studied micromixers are based on passive mixing and planar geometries, which makes them easy to fabricate and integrate in microfluidic devices. Numerical simulations in COMSOL and experimental results are in good agreement and show excellent mixing performance for all tested micromixers. The study of micromixers performance with such a high ratio of the inlets flow rate has not yet been found in state-of-the-art, and, for that reason, this work might represent an important contribution in the field of micromixers when high disparity in the inlets flow rate are needed, as well as for further integration into the seawater pH LOC.This work was co-financed by Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (NORTE2020), through Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER), Project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000032 – NextSea and by project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-029394, supported by NORTE2020, under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), IP, project PTDC/EMD-EMD/29394/2017