Analysis of entropy generation in biomimetic electroosmotic nanofluid pumping through a curved channel with joule dissipation

Abstract

Biomimetic designs are increasingly filtering into new areas of technology in recent years. Such systems exploit characteristics intrinsic to nature to achieve enhanced adaptivity and efficiency in engineering applications. Peristaltic propulsion is an example of such characteristics and in the current article it is explored as a feasible mechanism for deployment in electrokinetic pumping of nanofluids through a curved distensible conduit as a model for a bioinspired smart device. The unsteady mass, momentum, energy and nanoparticle concentration conservation equations for a Newtonian aqueous ionic fluid under an axial electrical field are formulated and simplified using lubrication approximations and low zeta potential (Debye Hückel linearization). A dilute nanofluid is assumed with Brownian motion and thermophoretic body forces present. The reduced non-dimensional conservation equations are solved with the symbolic software, Mathematica 9 via the NDSolve algorithm for velocity, temperature, nano-particle concentration distributions for low zeta potential. An entropy generation analysis is also conducted. The influence of curvature parameter, maximum electroosmotic velocity (Helmholtz-Smoluchowski velocity), inverse EDL thickness parameter, zeta potential ratio and Joule heating parameter on transport characteristics is evaluated with the aid of graphs and contour plots. Temperature profiles are elevated with positive Joule heating and reduced with negative Joule heating whereas the opposite behaviour is observed for the nano-particle concentrations.