Electroosmotic Velocity and Electric Conductivity in a Fibrous Porous Medium in the Transverse Direction

Abstract

The steady electroosmosis and electric conduction in a fibrous medium constructed by a homogeneous array of parallel, identical, charged, circular cylinders filled with an electrolyte solution is analytically examined. The imposed electric field is constant and normal to the axes of the cylinders. The electric double layer surrounding each dielectric cylinder may have an arbitrary thickness relative to the radius of the cylinder. A unit cell model that allows for the overlap of the double layers of adjacent cylinders is employed. The electrokinetic equations that govern the ionic concentration distributions, the electrostatic potential profile, and the fluid flow field in the electrolyte solution surrounding the charged cylinder in a cylindrical cell are linearized assuming that the system is only slightly distorted from equilibrium. Through the use of a regular perturbation method, these linearized equations are solved with the surface charge density (or zeta potential) of the cylinder as the small perturbation parameter. Analytical expressions for the electroosmotic velocity of the fluid solution and the effective electric conductivity in the array of cylinders are obtained in closed forms as functions of the porosity of the fiber matrix and other characteristics of the porous system. Comparisons of the results of the cell model with different conditions at the outer boundary of the cell are made. The cell model predicts that, under otherwise identical conditions, the electric conductivity in a porous medium composed of an array of parallel cylinders in the transverse direction in general is smaller than that of a suspension of spheres, but there are some exceptions. The effect of interactions among the cylinders or spheres on the effective conductivity can be significant under appropriate conditions.