Visualization of fluid mixing in microchannels

The development of a microchannel for fluid-mixing applications comes from the recent interest in microfluidic device applications in biology. Microfluidics refers to fluid flow and transport phenomena associated with these devices. The basic idea of developing microfluidic devices is to shrink the physical dimensions of most commonly used processors - that is, using miniaturization and function integration to create the so-called lab on a chip. The development of microfabrication procedures and the associated fundamental theories requires computer analysis and simulation techniques. Computer modeling not only reduces the experiment costs - such as data acquisition devices and control - but also expedites a certain design concept's evaluation process. More importantly, computer modeling results will help gain a better understanding of the flow field through flow visualization, and the information drawn from the results of computer simulations will in turn improve the design. This is especially important during the conceptual design phase.