Chaotic advection in a braided pipe mixer

摘要

Chaotic advection is investigated in a "braided pipe mixer" (BPM). This static mixing device consists of an outer pipe containing several intertwining internal pipes, with fluid pumped down the gap. It has recently been proposed, by analogy with the two-dimensional theory of topological chaos, that the BPM should be an effective mixing device, specifically that (i) good mixing might be achieved with only very thin internal pipes, and (ii) the quality of the mixing should be improved if the internal pipes form a mathematical braid. Our results suggest that neither (i) nor (ii) is the case for the BPM studied. © 2003 American Institute of Physics.