Title: Multi-objective optimisation approach to design passive micromixers: Taguchi-based Grey relational analysis

Authors: Digvijay Ronge; Prashant Pawar

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, SVERI's College of Engineering, Pandharpur, 413304, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, SVERI's College of Engineering, Pandharpur, 413304, India

Abstract: Micromixers play a crucial role within microfluidic devices to facilitate diffusion mixing. The present study examines the impact of five distinct design parameters of a T-shaped serpentine micromixer namely mixing area shape, micromixer area, channel width, channel spacing, and channel orientation - on its mixing efficiency and the pressure drop. Using the Taguchi method of design of experiments (DoE), an orthogonal array (OA) of 27 was constructed, and each experiment was numerically modelled and solved using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver. Signal-to-noise ratio analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to quantify the impact of each individual parameter. Grey relational analysis (GRA) was employed to optimise the micromixer geometry such that a higher mixing performance is achieved at a lower pressure drop. The optimal micromixer fabricated from Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) utilising soft lithography techniques was subjected to experimental validation, showcasing a deviation of 10% from the numerical results.

Keywords: micromixing; optimisation; Taguchi; ANOVA; soft lithography.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2025.144808

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2025 Vol.25 No.2, pp.63 - 78

Received: 23 Oct 2023
Accepted: 18 Jan 2024
Published online: 03 Mar 2025 *

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