Abstract The trade-off between mixing efficiency, energy consumption, and low maintenance costs presents a compelling reason to further explore energy-free and environmentally friendly hydraulic mixing. This research focuses on designing a low-complexity static mixer with fixed components that achieves high efficiency while minimizing pressure drop and kinetic energy usage. The innovative mixer developed in this study adopted Tesla's micromixer structure, featuring a diameter of 170 mm and a height of 600 mm, making it an appropriate size for water treatment applications. To validate the effectiveness of this size Tesla-style mixer, we utilized computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to model the mixing currents created by vortices. The results indicated promising mixing efficiency between coagulants and contaminants. Additionally, the study examined two optimized designs for the innovative mixer: one with sharp edges for the internal channels and another with rounded edges. To ensure accuracy in the analysis, we selected the Realizable K-ε model, known for its effectiveness in simulating high-intensity disturbances and complex flow conditions similar to those in this study. The sharp-edged design showed superior performance. Encouraging additional adjustments by increasing the number of mixing stages for the same size of the mixer. These enhancements improved mixing efficiency, as indicated by the pressure drop parameters and mixing VOF ratios for water and coagulants.