Ricerc@Sapienza

Mixing of a diffusing species entrained in a three-dimensional microfluidic flow-focusing cross-junction is numerically
investigated at low Reynolds numbers, 1 ≤ Re ≤ 150 , for a value of the Schmidt number representative of a small solute
molecule in water, Sc = 103 . Accurate three-dimensional simulations of the steady-state incompressible Navier–Stokes equations
confirm recent results reported in the literature highlighting the occurrence of different qualitative structures of the

We investigate numerically the homogenization process of a diffusive species in a mixing channel of arbitrary length downstream a microfluidic cross-junction. The channel length, λα, necessary to achieve a prescribed level of mixedness, α, is targeted as primary quantity of interest, and its dependence on the Reynolds number, Re, on the flow ratio between the impinging currents, R, and on the Schmidt number of the solute, Sc, is analyzed.