Beschreibung:
<jats:p>Numerical simulations of a micromixing system based on chaotic advection for improved deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) chip hybridization are presented. To attain best chip performance, homogeneous dispersion of DNA molecules throughout the chamber in which the chip is placed is of primary importance. Poincaré sections of a simple time-periodic flow, based on numerical simulations of the flow, are compared with visualizations in a scaled-up experiment, with good agreement. The influence on mixing efficiency of varying the period of the flow at fixed volume flow rate is studied and a trade off is found between the absence of regular islands and a small enough total sample volume. The results illustrate the potential for optimization of such devices based on numerical flow simulations.</jats:p>