Enhanced Electro-Osmotic Flow of Power-Law Fluids in Hydrophilic Patterned Nanochannel

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, electro-osmotic flow (EOF) enhancement of non-Newtonian power-law fluids in a modulated nanochannel with polarized wall is proposed. The channel walls are embedded with periodically arranged rectangular grooves, placed vertically with the direction of electric field. The key aspect of the present study is to achieve enhanced EOF of power-law fluids due to periodic groove patterns. The flow characteristics are studied through Poisson–Nernst–Plank-based Navier–Stokes model associated with electrochemical boundary conditions. Some random-phase differences between the grooves in both the walls are allowed to find the best configuration for the EOF enhancement in case of both Pseudo-plastic fluid, Dilatant fluid, and compared to Newtonian fluid. A notable enhancement factor is observed when groove width is much larger than its depth along with overlapped EDL. It is also found that EOF enhancement for shear-thinning fluid is quite better than the other fluids, for the same set of physical parameters. A comparison of enhancement factor for power-law fluid is also presented when the grooves are replaced with hydrophobic strips. It is worth to mention here that the present study assumes no-slip condition which is true for wetting (hydrophilic) surface over nonwetting (hydrophobic) strips which is common occurrence in regards to nanoconfinements.