Numerical Study of Mixing and Mass Transfer in a Micromixer by Stimulation of Magnetic Nanoparticles in a Magnetic Field

Abstract A numerical study on the hydrodynamics of ferrofluid flow and mass transfer characteristics in a Y‐type micromixer is performed. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is accomplished to survey the behavior of ferrofluid flow subject to an external magnetic field and to specify its effect on the mass transfer between two immiscible liquid phases. The geometric reconstruction scheme (Geo‐Reconstruct) based on piecewise linear interpolation is applied to reconstruct the two‐phase interface. The results of CFD modeling are validated by experimental data, and good agreements are achieved, with a maximum relative error for the extraction efficiency of about 7.52 %. This research work shows that ferrofluid stimulation by a magnetic field can be an efficient mixing factor in microdevices.