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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

electro-osmotic flow, fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic development region

College

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

Recent advancements in technology have created the need for increased understanding of fluid flow in microtubes with a diameter of a 100μm or less. These types of flows can occur in many practical applications, one of which is a concept proposed for DNA analysis called “lab on a chip.” At this physical scale, the pressures required to drive the flow of the fluid are often too large for any type of potential application. An alternative approach to driving the fluid through a microtube is to use electro-osmosis. This type of flow uses an applied voltage potential to drive the fluid through the microtube instead of a pressure gradient. The nature of electro-osmosis has raised many questions as to the characteristics of the fluid dynamics as the solution flows through the microtube. The purpose of this research is to numerically calculate and characterize the hydrodynamic development region (the region at the inlet where the flow is developing) of electro-osmotically driven flows in microtubes. For this study the commercial CFD code Fluent was utilized to enable numerical modeling of the developing flow field.

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