Study on Mixing Performance of High-Viscosity Fluid in Continuous Microfluidic Multistage Stirrer

To address the limitations of conventional microchannel reactors, which have low throughput, and the insufficient mixing and “dead zones” present in industrial stirred tank reactors for the production of homogeneous mixtures, we propose a continuous multistage microfluidic stirrer. This study employs an iodate/iodide reaction system to evaluate the mixing performance of the micro stirrer, demonstrating a strong correlation between numerical simulation results and experimental data. The numerical simulations investigate the internal flow characteristics of the continuous multistage microfluidic stirrer at various rotational speeds. Results indicate that, at a constant viscosity, the mixing index increases by an average of 98% as the rotational speed is increased from 30 to 200 rpm Furthermore, as the number of stirring stages (S) increases, the mixing performance at the outlet improves; however, a balance must be maintained between the number of stirring stages and fluid viscosity in practical applications. The continuous multistage microfluidic stirrer designed in this study provides a novel solution for industrial applications.