This study proposed a novel design of the passive micromixer which employed several quadrilateral shaped blocks in the micro channel to enhance mixing. Both numerical and experimental investigations have been carry out. Commercial software CFD-ACE was used to simulate the flows. The simulation results showed great agreement with the measured results, implying that Navier¡VStokes¡¦ equations still effectively governs the micro-scope flows in this scale. It is effective to enhance mixing efficiency over wide flow rate ranges. Mixing performance was characterized by Laser-induced-fluorescence system (LIF system) to quantity the concentration distribution in the micro channel . In addition, Microscopic flow visualization was also setup to visualize the flow field in the micro mixer. Micro-particle image velocimetry (Micro-PIV) was used to measure the flow fields in microchannel filled with deionized water (DI water) . The system utilizes an epifluorescent microscope, 3.3 £gm diameter seed particles, and an high speed CCD camera to record particle-image fields. The vector fields are analyzed using a double-frame cross-correlation algorithm. The stochastic influence of Brownian motion plays a significant role in the accuracy of instantaneous velocity measurements.

Cette thèse, intitulée « Emulsification en systèmes microstructurés », s’inscrit au sein de la tâche « Emulsification contrôlée » du projet européen IMPULSE. Deux micromélangeurs en acier inoxydable, un V-type et un Caterpillar, ont été testés en utilisant un pilote d’émulsification continue. Ces dispositifs conçus en acier inoxydable et fonctionnant comme des boîtes noires, des micromélangeurs transparents ont ensuite été utilisés afin de comprendre leurs mécanismes d’émulsification. Les paramètres-clés intervenant dans la formation de gouttes à un orifice à l’échelle macroscopique ont dans un premier temps été identifiés. A l’échelle microscopique, la formation des gouttelettes dans le micromélangeur V-type est issue de la mise en contact des jets des phases aqueuse et organique formés à la sortie de ce dispositif et d’un phénomène élongationnel avec des instabilités interfaciales. Dans le cas du Caterpillar, la taille des gouttelettes dépend de la géométrie interne des éléments en série de ce micromélangeur. La formation des gouttelettes est issue d’un phénomène de cisaillement au niveau de la jonction en Y. La réduction de la taille de ces gouttelettes est ensuite due à leur passage dans les éléments de mélange. L’utilisation de micromélangeurs transparents a, quant à elle, permis de caractériser davantage ces deux micromélangeurs par micro-PIV et caméra rapide. Enfin, une dépendance du diamètre des gouttelettes par rapport à l’énergie dissipée est constatée pour le Caterpillar mais par pour le V-type. L’énergie dissipée dans ces deux micromélangeurs semble être moindre et les émulsions formées de meilleure qualité par rapport aux procédés classiques d’émulsification / This thesis, entitled “Emulsification in micromixers” was carried out within the framework of the Task “Controlled Emulsification” of the European IMPULSE project. Two micromixers in stainless steel, the V-type and the Caterpillar, were tested in an experimental setup. These microdevices working as black boxes, transparent micromixers were used after to gain insight into the fundamental mechanisms for emulsification. Firstly, the key parameters enabling the drop formation at macroscopic scale were identified. At microscopic scale, the droplet formation in the V-type micromixer results from the contact of aqueous and organic phases jets at the outlet of the microdevice and from elongational phenomena with interfacial instabilities. In the case of the Caterpillar, the droplets size depends on the internal geometry of the microdevice. The droplet formation can be mainly attributed to the shearing phenomena at the Y-junction. The decrease of the droplets’ size is then due to their passage through the mixing elements in series in the outlet channel. Moreover, the use of transparent micromixers allows to characterize these two micromixers by the micro-PIV and high speed camera. A straightforward relationship between the energy dissipation and the size of droplets was established for the Caterpillar, but not for the V-type. Moreover, the energy dissipation within these two micromixers is lower and the emulsions obtained having a more satisfactory quality than in the case of the classical emulsification processes

abstract: Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) with X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) has enabled the determination of damage-free protein structures at ambient temperatures and of reaction intermediate species with time resolution on the order of hundreds of femtoseconds. However, currently available XFEL facility X-ray pulse structures waste the majority of continuously injected crystal sample, requiring a large quantity (up to grams) of crystal sample to solve a protein structure. Furthermore, mix-and-inject serial crystallography (MISC) at XFEL facilities requires fast mixing for short (millisecond) reaction time points (𝑡"), and current sample delivery methods have complex fabrication and assembly requirements. To reduce sample consumption during SFX, a 3D printed T-junction for generating segmented aqueous-in-oil droplets was developed. The device surface properties were characterized both with and without a surface coating for improved droplet generation stability. Additionally, the droplet generation frequency was characterized. The 3D printed device interfaced with gas dynamic virtual nozzles (GDVNs) at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), and a relationship between the aqueous phase volume and the resulting crystal hit rate was developed. Furthermore, at the European XFEL (EuXFEL) a similar quantity and quality of diffraction data was collected for segmented sample delivery using ~60% less sample volume than continuous injection, and a structure of 3-deoxy-D-manno- octulosonate 8-phosphate synthase (KDO8PS) delivered by segmented injection was solved that revealed new structural details to a resolution of 2.8 Å. For MISC, a 3D printed hydrodynamic focusing mixer for fast mixing by diffusion was developed to automate device fabrication and simplify device assembly. The mixer was characterized with numerical models and fluorescence microscopy. A variety of devices were developed to reach reaction intermediate time points, 𝑡", on the order of 100 – 103 ms. These devices include 3D printed mixers coupled to glass or 3D printed GDVNs and two designs of mixers with GDVNs integrated into the one device. A 3D printed mixer coupled to a glass GDVN was utilized at LCLS to study the oxidation of cytochrome c oxidase (CcO), and a structure of the CcO Pr intermediate was determined at 𝑡" = 8 s. / Dissertation/Thesis / Supplementary Video D.1 - Droplet formation in a 3D printed droplet generator / Doctoral Dissertation Chemistry 2019

A commercial valve-assisted micromixer, manufactured by Ehrfeld (Germany), was tested for its use to precipitate L-asparagine from an aqueous solution using isopropanol as antisolvent. In a first part the mixing quality provided by the micromixer was studied by means of a competitive/parallel set of reactions following the approach of Baldyga, Bourne and Walker, Canadian J. Chem. Eng. 76 (1998) 641-649. Different experiments have been implemented and interpreted considering the average of Reynolds number of the inlet streams. Results show a good mixing quality that is comparable, in terms of absolute values of conversion, with other works present in literature. The precipitation experiments that followed revealed the limitation of the micromixer. The system was instable and particles adhesion occurred inside the mixing chamber. Improvements have been realized by changing the spring tension of the valve and introducing a commercial surfactant TRITON X-100.

No description available.

<div> <div> <div> <p>Microfluidics is a new and emerging field that has applications in a myriad of microfluidic industrial applications such as biochemical engineering, analytical processing, biomedical engineering and separation of cells. Microfluidics operations are carried out in microfluidic chips, and the traditional method of fabrication is carried out in a cleanroom. However, this fabrication method is very costly and also requires professional trained personnel. In this thesis, a low-cost fabrication platform was developed based on soft-lithography technique developed to fabricate the microfluidic devices with resolution at microscale. This fabrication method is advantageous and novel because it is able to achieve the microscale fabrication capability with simple steps and lower-level laboratory configuration. In the developed fabrication platform, an array of ultraviolet light was illuminated onto a photoresist film that has a negative photomask with a microfluidic design on it. The photoresist film is then developed, and a silicon polymer of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is chosen to be the material for the device. In this work, the performance and resolution of the fabrication system was evaluated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), polymer resolution test and light intensity analysis. </p> <p>Based on the success of the development of microfluidics fabrication platform, various experiment of mixing and separation was conducted and studied because the utilization of the microfluidic device for mixing and separation is very valuable in biomedical and chemical engineering. Although there are a lot of applications reported, the precise separation and mixing at microscale still meet some difficulties. Mixing in micromixers is extremely time-consuming and requires very long microchannels due to laminar flow and low Reynolds number. Particle separation is also hard to be achieved because the size of micron bioparticles is very small and thus the force is not strong enough to manipulate their motion. The integration of magnetic field is an active method to strengthen both mixing and separation that has been widely applied in the biomedical industry overcome these difficulties because of its compatibility with organic particles. However, most magnetic mixing and separation use bulky permanent magnets that leave a large footprint or electromagnets that generate harmful Joule heat to organic and bio-particles. In this work, microscale magnet made of a mixture of neodymium powder and polydimethylsiloxane was developed and integrated into microfluidic system to achieve both rapid mixing of ferrofluids and separation of microparticles. Systematic experiments were conducted to discuss the effect of various parameters on the performance of magnetic mixing and separation of microparticles. It was found that channel geometry, flow filed, and magnetic properties will affect the transport phenomena of ferrofluid and microparticles, and thus mixing and separation efficiency. These findings are of great significance for the high throughput sorting of cancer cells and its mixing between drug for therapy treatment.</p></div></div></div>

Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, zum einen systematische Untersuchungen der Hydrodynamik und des Stofftransports in T-, Y- und MS-förmigen Mikroreaktoren durchzuführen, und zum anderen den Einfluss der Vermischung auf chemische Reaktionen zweiter Ordnung zu erforschen. Dafür kommen Methoden der numerischen Strömungsmechanik zum Einsatz, die es ermöglichen, die Transportprozesse in den Mikroreaktoren detailliert zu beschreiben. Mittels der berechneten Geschwindigkeits- und Konzentrationsfelder sowie einigen zusätzlich eingeführten lokalen und integralen Größen werden die Hydrodynamik, der Mischvorgang und die chemische Leistung tiefgehend analysiert. Insgesamt konnten die in den untersuchten T-, Y- und MS-förmigen Mikroreaktoren ablaufenden Prozesse in der reaktiven Strömung sowohl auf dem lokalen als auch auf dem integralen Niveau detailliert erforscht werden. Der Effekt der Mikrovermischung und ihr komplexer Einfluss auf die chemische Leistung einer Reaktion zweiter Ordnung bei der chaotischen Advektion wurden sowohl reaktionstechnisch experimentell als auch mittels der numerischen Strömungsmechanik nachgewiesen und qualitativ sowie quantitativ umfassend charakterisiert.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.