Electro-osmotic flow of couple stress fluids in a microchannel propagated by peristalsis

A mathematical model is developed for electro-osmotic peristaltic pumping of a non-Newtonian liquid in a deformable micro-channel. Stokes’ couple stress fluid model is deployed to represent realistic working liquids. The Poisson-Boltzmann equation for electric potential distribution is implemented owing to the presence of an electrical double layer (EDL) in the micro-channel. Using long wavelength, lubrication theory and Debye-Huckel approximations, the linearized transformed dimensionless boundary value problem is solved analytically. The influence of electro-osmotic parameter (inversely proportional to Debye length), maximum electro-osmotic velocity (a function of external applied electrical field) and couple stress parameter on axial velocity, volumetric flow rate, pressure gradient, local wall shear stress and stream function distributions is evaluated in detail with the aid of graphs. The Newtonian fluid case is retrieved as a special case with vanishing couple stress effects. With increasing couple stress parameter there is a significant elevation in axial pressure gradient whereas the core axial velocity is reduced. An increase in electro-osmotic parameter induces both flow acceleration in the core region (around the channel centreline) and also enhances axial pressure gradient substantially. The study is relevant to simulation of novel smart bio-inspired space pumps, chromatography and medical microscale devices

Effect of gravity modulation on electrothermal convection in a dielectric fluid saturated anisotropic porous layer

This paper deals with linear and nonlinear stability analyses of thermal convection in a dielectric fluid saturated anisotropic Brinkman porous layer subject to the combined effect of AC electric field and time-periodic gravity modulation (GM). In the realm of linear theory, the critical stability parameters are computed by regular perturbation method. The local nonlinear theory based on truncated Fourier series method gives the information of convection amplitudes and heat transfer. Principle of exchange of stabilities is found to be valid and subcritical instability is ruled out. Based on the governing linear autonomous system several qualitative results on stability are discussed. The sensitive dependence of the solution of Lorenz system of electrothermal convection to the choice of initial conditions points to the possibility of chaos. Low frequency g-jitter is found to have significant stabilizing influence which is in turn diminished by an imposed AC electric field. The role of other governing parameters on the stability threshold and on transient heat transfer is determined. © 2014 by ASME

Effects of Viscosity Variation and Surface Roughness on the Couple stress Squeeze Film Characteristics of Short Journal Bearings

The theoretical analysis of the combined effects of surface roughness and viscosity variation on the couple stress squeeze film characteristics of short journal bearings is presented. The modified stochastic Reynold’s equation accounting for the viscosity variation of couple stresses fluid and randomized surface roughness structure on bearing surface is mathematically derived using the Christensen stochastic theory. It is observed that, the transverse roughness pattern improves the squeeze film characteristics whereas the bearing performance is affected due to the presence of one dimensional longitudinal surface roughness. Further, it is observed that, the effect of viscosity variation is to reduce the load carrying capacity and squeeze film time as compared to the case of constant viscosity