Vortical Flow in Rotating Milli- and Micro-Chambers for Mixing and Process Intensification

A novel method using transient-generated inertial effect is used to mix a small sample (milli- to micro-liter) in a chamber in a rotating Compact Disk. The primary vortical flow generated from inertia further induces a complex Coriolis vortical flow, which in conjunction with the primary flow, speeds up mixing by orders of magnitude in an otherwise viscous-force dominant small chemical reactor.

Experiments and numerical simulations are used to reveal the complex three-dimensional spiral toroidal flows generated and associated mixing. Further, the scale-up laws have been developed for process design. Such process intensification can be applied to cell culture, chemical reaction studies, and many more applications.