What is it about?
This research investigates how two fluids mix inside microscopic channels that resemble the tiny pores in underground rocks. By combining laboratory experiments with computer simulations, we show how flow speed, fluid viscosity, and surface features influence mixing. The study highlights how small, irregular textures dramatically improve mixing efficiency—insights that are valuable for energy, environmental, and microfluidic technologies.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Efficient mixing in small spaces is essential for technologies like underground carbon storage, energy recovery, and lab-on-a-chip systems. This study shows how tiny surface features can dramatically enhance fluid mixing—even in slow, smooth flows—offering new strategies to design more effective microfluidic devices and improve fluid injection in subsurface environments.
Perspectives
These findings open new pathways for designing passive mixers in microfluidic systems and optimizing fluid injection strategies in subsurface energy applications. Future work could explore how these principles apply to gas–liquid systems, more complex pore geometries, and reactive flows relevant to carbon sequestration and clean energy technologies.
Negar Nazari
Harvard University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Analysis of mixing dynamics and the development of miscibility in microchannels, Physics of Fluids, July 2025, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0268539.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
