Chaotic mixing enhancement in electro-osmotic flows by random period modulation

J. Rafael Pacheco, Kangping Chen, Arturo Pacheco-Vega, Baisong Chen, Mark Hayes

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this Letter we report a method for enhancing mixing of a passive tracer in an electro-osmotic flow in a rectangular microchannel. A time-periodic electric field across the microchannel, filled with an electrolyte solution, is applied in order to realize a well-mixed state. A random perturbation to the time-periodic electric field is introduced in order to break the invariant tori of the system and achieve better mixing results. It is shown that under such period-modulation the enhancement effect increases with the strength of the modulation, and it is much reduced as diffusion is increased.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1001-1008
Number of pages8
JournalPhysics Letters, Section A: General, Atomic and Solid State Physics
Volume372
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 11 2008

Keywords

  • Chaotic mixing
  • Electro-osmotic flow
  • Low Reynolds number
  • Random period modulation
  • Stochasticity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Chaotic mixing enhancement in electro-osmotic flows by random period modulation'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this