Rima Febria Rizkyta, Wira Hadi Kusuma, Roer Eka Pawinanto, Jumril Yunas, Fitri Khoerunnisa, Budi Mulyanti
This study examines the effect of Reynolds number on mixing performance in a T-shaped Snowflake Fractal Micromixer (TSFM) with a 30° orientation. Simulations are performed using COMSOL Multiphysics with water and ethanol as working fluids relevant to lipid nanoparticle (LNP) production conditions. A concentration ratio 1: 5 is used at the inlet, with Reynolds number variations from 0.1 to 150. The mixing index value measures the degree of fluid homogenization at the outlet. The results showed that at very low Re(0.1-1), mixing is dominated by molecular diffusion with a relatively constant mixing index of approximately 74.6%. The mixing index increases sharply, reaching its maximum efficiency of 76.86% at Re 50 due to microvortices forming and flow stretching by fractal resistance. In contrast, at high Re(100-150), the mixing index decreases gradually with a minimum value of 73.59% at Re 150 because the flow becomes predominantly axial, reducing lateral mixing. This finding indicates that TSFM operation at low to medium Re(5 ≤ Re≤ 25) provides the most stable conditions for LNP production, offering homogeneous mixing with less risk of process inconsistency compared to the highly efficient but less stable high-Re regime 10, thus potentially producing nanoparticles with a narrower size distribution. © 2025 IEEE.
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Study Program of Electrical Engineering Education, Bandung, Indonesia; Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Study Program of Industrial Automation Engineering Education and Robotics, Bandung, Indonesia; Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics (IMEN), Bangi, Indonesia; Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Study Program of Chemistry, Bandung, Indonesia; Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Study Program of Electrical Engineering, Bandung, Indonesia
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