OPTIMAL ANALYSIS OF THE HYDRAULIC AND MIXING PERFORMANCES OF SYMMETRIC T-SHAPED RECTANGULAR MICROCHANNEL MIXER

This paper theoretically and numerically investigates the hydraulic resistance, mixing efficiency, and comprehensive mixing and hydraulic performance characterized by the outlet mixing efficiency to hydraulic resistance ratio of the symmetric T-shaped rectangular microchannel mixer with uniform channel height. The influences of multi-parameters including width ratio of inlet channel and outlet channel, channel height, and two different inlet conditions of inlet velocity and inlet flowrate on the hydraulic and mixing performance of the micromixer are investigated. This work found that the comprehensive performance first increases and then decreases with the increasing channel width ratio of inlet channel and outlet channel, indicating the existence of an optimal channel width ratio to reach the best comprehensive mixing and hydraulic performance. This result is similar to the conclusion of classical Murray’s law and can be considered as an extension of classical Murray’s law in the field of microscale mixing. The effects of the channel height, channel length ratio and different inlet conditions on the optimal width ratio are analyzed.