A possible solution for water purification from heavy metals is to capture them by using nanoparticles in microfluidic ducts. In this technique, heavy metal capture is achieved by effectively mixing two streams, a nanoparticle solution and the contaminated water. In the present work, particles and water mixing is numerically studied for various inlet velocity ratios and inflow angles of the two streams. The Navier-Stokes equations are solved for the water flow while the discrete motion of particles is evaluated by a Lagrangian method. Results showed that as the velocity ratio between the inlet streams increases, by increasing the particles solution flow, the mixing of particles with the contaminated water is increased. Thus, nanoparticles are more uniformly distributed in the duct. On the other hand, angle increase between the inflow streams ducts is found to be less significant.

The usage of magnetic spherical nanoparticles, coated with substances and driven to targeted areas in tanks, is proposed for cleaning the water from heavy metals. In the present paper, a computational study for the estimation of the optimum gradient magnetic field is presented in order to ensure the optimum driving of the particles into the targeted area. The optimization of the gradient magnetic field rates’ is verified with the particles’ deviation from a desired trajectory. Using the above mentioned method, it was depicted that with the increase of the optimization parameters number, the particles’ deviation from the desired trajectory is decreased.