The mixing performance of an experimental device-the enhanced mixing s
imulator (EMS)-is studied in this paper. In this device, the Couette f
low is perturbed laterally, so that uniform and quick mixing can be ac
hieved. Numerical simulation of the mixing in EMS flows is performed,
which shows good agreement with the experimental results. Spline inter
polation and advanced integration techniques are used in particle trac
king, so that accurate results are obtained at low costs. Poincare sec
tions are used to study the long-term mixing behavior. The uniformity
of the simulated mixture is evaluated using statistical approaches-the
variation coefficient and the Kolmogorov test. The Kolmogorov test is
adequately implemented for our purpose and incorporated with efficien
t sorting algorithms. The mixing rate is determined from the time evol
ution of uniformity during mixing. It is also shown that although the
Lyapunov exponent can identify chaos, it does not measure the mixing r
ate. Optimal design of the EMS is discussed.