Traditional reactors are usually made of rigid materials

which container walls do not actively participate in mixing and reaction with fluid. Inspired by working mechanism of human and animal digestive systems

a new soft-elastic reactor (SER) was developed to promote mixing through wall movement. The SER

made of silicone rubber with good transparency

toughness and elasticity

had periodic wall movement driven by an easy to operate

stable

and highly reproducible crank-rod system. Systematic experimental study on mixing Newtonian fluids under different operational conditions demonstrated that fluid mixing could be realized in SER and mixing performance could be effectively controlled by frequency and degree of wall deformation. Furthermore

a new Reynolds number calculation was proposed to describe SER mixing. Compared to inclined three paddle agitator at same dimension and experimental condition

the soft-elastic reactor had slightly better mixing performance in low Reynolds number region (10-1000).