3D printed kenics static micromixer

Abstract

Kenics static mixer (KSM), which comprises helical blades twisted 180° in left and right-hand directions alternatively and connected 90° to each other, has been widely used in macroscale because of its excellent mixing performance. Despite the high mixing efficiency, it is hard to apply in microscale conditions since it is difficult to fabricate the helical blades with conventional manufacturing methods and still mainly stays in the simulation stage. In this study, the Inkjet 3D printing method, which provides a rapid and cost-effective manufacturing method in one step without considering the complex three-dimensional structures for microfluidics, was adopted to build the Kenics static mixer and the Fibonacci’s golden ratio theory that caused a small pressure loss in spiral motion was introduced into the helical blade design. Both simulations and experiments were conducted to characterize the mixing performance of the 3D printed KSM and compared with the slanted groove micromixer (SGM) and Y-shaped micromixer. The results demonstrated the superiority (mixing efficiency > 90%) of the 3D printed KSM proposed in this study.