Two dimensional numerical study on mixing enhancement in micro-channel due to induced charge electrophoresis

Abstract Mixing different species to produce a homogeneous solution is of great interest, affecting the performance of lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) devices. Because of the laminar characteristic of the flow field in microchannels, the LOC devices usually suffer from poor mixing efficiency. This study numerically investigates the enhancement of mixing efficiency in a microchannel using a conductive micro-particle. For this, the governing equations of the induced-charged electrokinetics based on the thin EDL assumption are solved by the finite volume method to provide a comprehensive parametric study on the mixing process and its efficiency taking into account the physical parameters such as the particle size, applied electric field, electric potential and branching inlet.