Relaxation characteristics of a compliant microfluidic

channel under electromagnetic-osmotic flow

MTP report submitted to the
Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur

In the fulfillment for the award of the

degree of

Dual
Degree in

Mechanical Engineering

by Goram Anil Nayak

(17ME32005)

Under the supervision of

Dr. Purbarun Dhar

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Autumn Semester, 2021-22

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 DECLARATION

I certify that

(a) The work contained in this report has been done by me under the guidance
of my supervisor.
(b) The work has not been submitted to any other Institute for any degree or
diploma.
(c) I have conformed to the norms and guidelines given in the Ethical Code of
Conduct of the Institute.
(d) Whenever I have used materials (data, theoretical analysis, figures, and text)
from other sources, I have given due credit to them by citing them in the text
of the thesis and giving their details in the references. Further, I have taken
permission from the copyright owners of the sources, whenever necessary.

Date: November 6TH, 2021 (Goram Anil Nayak)

Place: Kharagpur (17ME32005)

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 Department of Mechanical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Kharagpur - 721302, India

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project report entitled “Relaxation characteristics of a compliant
microfluidic channel under electromagnetic osmotic flow” submitted by Goram Anil
Nayak (Roll No. 17ME32005) to Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur towards the
fulfillment of requirements for the award of degree of Dual Degree in Mechanical
Engineering is a record of bona fide work carried out by him under my supervision and
guidance on the session 2021-2022.

Dr. Purbarun Dhar

Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Date: November 6th, 2021

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 Abstract

Name of the student: Goram Anil Nayak Roll No: 17ME32005

Degree for which submitted: Dual Degree

Department: Department of Mechanical Engineering

Thesis title: Relaxation characteristics of a compliant microfluidic channel under

electromagnetic osmotic flow
Thesis supervisor: Dr. Purbarun Dhar
Month and year of thesis submission: November 2021

In this study, A mathematical equation is derived to study the combined influences of electro
magneto-osmotic flow on an initially deformed microfluidic channel wall as it relaxes to its
undeformed state. Velocity profile, for compliant micro-fluidic channel subjected to
electromagnetic-osmotic flow, along the axis of channel is derived. The velocity profile has been
obtained from solving Navier-stokes equation, under the condition of lubrication approximation
and low Reynolds number. The electric double layer (EDL) effects are modelled by employing
the classical Poisson–Boltzmann equation.

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Acknowledgements

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Table of contents

List of figures

Fig.1 Geometric model of the problem setup

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 Nomenclature

ρ Charge density
μ Dynamic viscosity
z Valence
e electronic charge, 1.602 × 10−19 C
u Axial (y) velocity component
ζ Zeta potential
Ψ Electrostatic potential
H Height of undeformed microfluidic channel
f Body force for unit volume
Ex Electric field in x direction
Ez Electric field in z direction
P Pressure
𝜀 Dielectric constant of the medium
L Axial length of the microchannel
By Magnetic field in y direction
KB Boltzmann constant, 1.3805 × 10−23 mol−1 K−1
εo Permittivity of vacuum, 8.854 × 10−12 C V−1m−
no Average number of positive or negative ions in the buffer
σe Electrical conductivity
λD Electric double layer (EDL) thickness
ρf Fluid density

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 Chapter 1 Introduction

Microfluidics play an important role in many biological systems and helps in

designing efficient heat and mass transfer micro systems. Polymeric materials are
used is many micro systems/micro devices, which are elastic in nature, are
designed in such a way that, these devices exploit the deformability nature of the
materials to enhance mass transfer rates. In many other devices, electrokinetic-
microfluidics have been exploited for manipulating and controlling liquid flows in
micro-devices. In the present study we have made an effort to combine these
physics in our problem to get characteristics which enhance the fluid flow and
understanding the relaxation characteristics of the compliant microfluidic channel
under electromagnetic-osmotic flow.
The aim of the present study is to investigate the possibilities of exploiting a
combination of both axial and lateral (out of the plane of flow) electrical fields,
which can interact with an externally imposed transverse magnetic field that acts
in the plane of flow in a compliant microfluidic channel which is relaxing from its
deformed state to undeformed state indeed creating a squeeze flow, in order to
obtain optimized rates of microfluidic transport.
Effects of EDL formation near the microchannel walls are taken into account, so as
to exploit the interaction of electrical and magnetic fields in the microflow
system. Basically, Naiver stokes equations were solved for the microfluidic flow to
get the velocity profile in x direction under the applied body forces.

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 Chapter 2 Literature review

A mathematical model was developed to study the combined influences of

electromagnetohydrodynamic forces in manipulating the fluid flow through
parallel plate rectangular microchannels by Suman Chakraborty et al. Effects of
EDL formation near the microchannel walls are critically examined.
The electric double layer (EDL) effects were modelled by employing the classical
Poisson–Boltzmann equation. The naiver stokes equations were solved to obtain
the overall flow rate as a function of system parameters. They showed that, with
the aid of a relatively low-magnitude magnetic field, a substantial augmentation
in the volumetric flow rates can be achieved. But however, with magnetic fields of
higher strengths further possibilities of flow rate augmentation was not observed.
A significant step towards the incorporation of the compliance of the microfluidic
channel walls under electroosmotic flow was taken by Uttiya Mukherjee et al.
Effect of electroosmotic flow on the temporal response of an initially deformed
microfluidic channel wall as it relaxes to its undeformed state was investigated by
solving Naiver stokes equations for compliant microfluidic channel under
electroosmotic flow. The electric double layer (EDL) effects were modelled by
employing the classical Poisson–Boltzmann equation.
With an intention to incorporate electromagnetic-osmotic flow in compliant
microfluidic channel, with a curiosity to find the relaxation characteristics of
compliant microfluidic channel under electromagnetic-osmotic flow and to
observe the influence of various parameters on the relaxation characteristics, it is
imperative to have a more in-depth analysis.

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 Chapter 3 Problem statement

Solve Naiver Stokes equations to derive the expression for velocity profile in the
axial direction of electromagnetic-osmotic flow on an initially deformed
microfluidic channel wall as it relaxes to its undeformed state. Examination of
influence of various parameters on the relaxation characteristic of compliant
microfluidic channel under electromagnetic-osmotic flow

Chapter 4 Model description

We consider a microfluidic channel of uniform confinement height H in the

undeformed state. The top wall of this channel is initially deformed due to a
combined pressure-driven and electroosmotic flow. When this pressure is
switched off, the compliant top wall starts relaxing back to its undeformed state
as shown in Fig. 1. In this process of relaxing, the flow in the channel arises due to
the combined consequence of the squeezing out motion and the externally
applied electric and magnetic field. To model this relaxation process together with
the electromagnetic-osmotic flow, we get set of governing equations and solve
them under simplified assumptions

Fig.1

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 Chapter 5 General theory

5.1 Electric double layer

Electric double layer is formed near the microchannel walls. Channel walls attain
net positive or negative charge due to ion adsorption from the polar liquid
molecules near the solid surface. This charge is balanced by the counter ions
present in the fluid, which form a thin layer of counter ions. This thin layer is
called as stern layer. The outer layer where the ions are in rapid thermal motion is
called diffuse EDL.
This diffuse layer spans over a distance of the order of the Debye length, which is
a distance normal to the wall over which the net charge decreases by a ratio of e−1
with respect to that of the charged surface. The thickness of the EDL depends
inversely w.r.t ionic concentration of the solution. The probability of finding an
ion at a particular point within the EDL is proportional to the Boltzmann factor,
e− zeψ / k K T , where z is the valence of the concerned charge, e is the electronic
B

charge, ψ is the electroosmotic potential, K B is the Boltzmann constant and T is

absolute temperature. For any binary fluid consisting of two kinds of ions of equal
and opposite charge z +¿¿ and z−¿¿ , the number of ions of each type can be
described by the Boltzmann distribution, given as n−¿¿ =n o e zeψ /k K T and
B

n+¿ ¿ =n o e− zeψ / k K T , where n o is the average number of positive or negative ions in

B

the buffer.
This distribution of ionic concentration appears to be valid when the flow Peclet
number is sufficiently small. We consider that the EDLs formed do not overlap.
The net charge density in a unit volume of the fluid is given as

ρ=¿

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A solution for the electroosmotic potential distribution can be readily obtained by
employing the Poisson–Boltzmann equation, which is of the form

5.2 Naiver stokes equation

Navier stokes equation for incompressible flows

And the continuity equation

where rhogyugyu is the fluid mass density, mue is the dynamic viscosity, P is the pressure, and f is the
body force.

5.3 stress balance equations

The stress balance euqations for the flexible channel wall is given by

Where

Where s is the displacement field and G and Y are the lame constants for the flexible layer
material,which is assumed to be isotropic and linearly elastic for simplification.

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 Chapter 6 Solution methodology

Eqn (11) is solved in its non-linear form by imposing the boundary conditions (a) at y ¼ 0, j ¼ z, and (b) at
y ¼ h/2, j ¼ dj/dy ¼ 0 to yield

where, as stated before, lD ¼ ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 3kBT=2n0e2z2 p is

the Debye screening length, and represents the characteristic thickness of the EDL. Now, considering the
effect of both the walls, we obtain37

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 Chapter 7 Results and Discussion

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 Chapter 8 Conclusion

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 References

1. Suman Chakraborty and Dibyadeep Paul 2006 J. Phys. D: Appl.

Phys. 39 5364
2. Uttiya Mukherjee,a Jeevanjyoti Chakrabortyb and Suman Chakraborty*bc : Soft
Matter, 2013, 9, 1562

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 Brief biodata of student

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