Flow dynamics and mixing past pairs of confined microfluidic cylinders

Placing cylindrical obstacles in a micromixer is a promising means to enhance mass transport. However, there is still a lack of fundamental understanding on the effect of obstacle arrangement on the flow. The present work provides new experimental insights into confined inertia flows past two cylindrical pins, placed either in tandem or staggered arrangement in a Y-type micromixer, and their effect on mixing, through micro Particle Image Velocimetry (μPIV) and Laser Induced Fluorescence (μLIF) measurements. It is found that in such confined microfluidic environments, adding a second pin suppresses vortex-shedding for spacings less than 3.5-pin diameters in a tandem arrangement or 0.25-pin diameters in the staggered configurations. Vortex-shedding is found to enhance mixing in tandem configurations but not in staggered ones. The results highlight the important roles of both pin arrangement and flow instabilities in micromixer performance and can serve as a guide to micromixer design.