The Study of Combined Electroosmotic and Pressure Driven Flow in Wavy Nanochannels

Abstract

Solid surfaces of micro/nanochannels exhibit a certain degree of roughness that is incurred during fabrication and/or adsorption of macromolecules. The presence of such roughness changes the flow pattern in electroosmotic flows (EOF). The present study investigates the effect of surface waviness on combined EOF and pressure driven flow (PDF) of an electrolyte solution, in a nanochannel having charged walls. The surface profile of the top and bottom walls vary either in a varicose or in a sinuous mode. The problem is solved by using the Perturbation model, a modified linearized disturbance Navier-Stokes equations, by assuming two-dimensional combined EOF and PDF between two parallel plates as base flow. By discretizing the linearized disturbance equations using the Chebyshev collocation method in the wall normal direction and Fourier transformation in the flow direction, the perturbed velocity components are calculated. The effects of electric double layer (EDL) and amplitude of wavy surface on the flow pattern are studied. The effects of overlapped EDL are also studied as one of the limiting case. The formation of circulation regions is observed in the varicose mode channel when the EOF and PDF are flowing in the opposite direction. The decrease in the number of circulation regions is ob served for the decrease in the value of average half height of the channel to debye length ratio (κ). Serpentine or triangular type waviness in the streamline velocity is observed in sinuous mode type channel when the EOF and PDF are in opposite directions. The increase in the waviness of the streamline velocity is observed for decrease in the value of κ and increase in the amplitude a when both EOF and PDF are flowing in the same direction.