Influence of Obstacles on the Mixing Performance of Serpentine Microchannels

The several Lab on a Chip devices depend largely on the microchannels. Each microchannel’s performance is determined by its mixing properties and pressure drop. The performance evaluation for serpentine microchannels including obstacles is the main topic of this paper. The simulations based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were performed by employing COMSOL Multiphysics 5.0 software. The semicircular obstacles were introduced in the flow direction of serpentine microchannels. The two inlets’ entrance velocities ranged between 0.5, 0.75 and 1 mm/s. The microchannels’ width and height were 400 µm (for an aspect ratio of 1). Pressure changes (drops) and mixing in straight serpentine microchannels with no obstructions and semi-circular obstructions are discussed. Study is done on how inlet velocity affects pressure drop as well as mixing length.