Effects of flexibility of conductive plate on efficiency of an induced-charge electrokinetic micro-mixer under constant and time-varying electric fields-A comprehensive parametric study

摘要

In this study, an induced-charge electrokinetic micro-mixer with a flexible conductive plate is simulated. The plate can be deformed under the influences of the hydrodynamic and electrostatic forces. A comprehensive parametric investigation is conducted on this micro-mixer. The influences of various parameters including usage of flexible and non-flexible plate, constant and time-varying electric fields, alternating electric field amplitude, average electric field intensity, Young's modulus of conductive plate, conductive plate length, and conductive plate displacement on the concentration field, pressure field, velocity field, and mixing efficiency are investigated. The results showed that the mixing efficiency of micro-mixer is greater for lower value of Young's modulus. The flexible conductive plate, which is subjected to a time-varying electric field, contributes to the mixing in two ways: (1) by inducing vortices on the conductive surfaces of the plate, (2) by oscillating the conductive plate, which acts as a stirrer and increases the mixing efficiency. The micro-mixer with flexible conductive plate under time-varying electric field has better mixing efficiency as compared with the other cases. The vortices created around the flexible plate are larger than the vortices of the non-flexible plate due to plate deformation. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.