Simulation on electroosmotic flow through a rectangular microchannel with different aspect ratios

A numerical study of electroosmotic flow through microchannels has been completed in this paper. A 2D Poisson-Boltzmann equation and a 2D Navier-Stokes equation governing the electric double layer (EDL) field and velocity field in the cross section of rectangular microchannels are numerically solved by employing SIMPLE method without the use of Debye-Huckel approximation. The volumetric flowrate with different aspect ratios for a fixed hydraulic diameter are compared. The comparison of the numerical simulation results show that significant influences of the channel cross-section geometry (i.e. the aspect ratio) on flow field. The objective of this paper is to provide the basis for electroosmotic pumping.