Abstract
In this paper the influence of obstructions on microchannel electro-osmotic flow is investigated for the first time. To carry out such a study, regular obstructions are introduced into microchannels and flow rates are numerically calculated. The effect of channel width on flow rates is analysed on both free and obstructed channels. The solid material considered for channel walls and obstructions is silicon, and the electrolyte is deionised water. The parameters studied include channel width, obstruction size and effective porosity of the channel. The effective porosity is varied between 0.4 and 0.8 depending on other chosen parameters. The results clearly demonstrate that, under the analysed conditions, introduction of obstructions into channels wider than 100,upmu hbox {m} enhances the flow rate induced by electro-osmosis.
Highlights
Electro-osmotic flow (EOF)-driven systems have been employed in various branches of engineering and technology, such as biomedical, geophysical, energy and chemical
Due to the dimensions involved in microchannels, producing experimental data is difficult and numerical modelling is very useful in predicting EOF (Li et al 2013a, b; Wang et al 2006)
For modelling the flow through microchannels with obstructions, an equivalent reference length is introduced to represent the effect of obstructions
Summary
Electro-osmotic flow (EOF)-driven systems have been employed in various branches of engineering and technology, such as biomedical, geophysical, energy and chemical. EOF in micro- and nanosystems with and without porous media has been investigated both experimentally and numerically by many, and recently, the behaviour of non-Newtonian fluids under EOF has been examined (Chen et al 2014). Due to the dimensions involved in microchannels, producing experimental data is difficult and numerical modelling is very useful in predicting EOF (Li et al 2013a, b; Wang et al 2006). Most authors have considered only the charge of channel walls neglecting that of solid particles (Scales 2004), both in the equation governing the internal potential and in that describing fluid flow. Several authors have analysed EOF at the pore level
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