Effects of Narrow Confinement on the Thermal Characteristics of Combined Pressure Driven and Electroosmotic Flow

ABSTRACT

In the present study, we consider the effects of narrow confinement on thermal transport characteristics of ionic fluids, for cases in which the electrical double layers (EDLs) are not thin enough to be of negligible extent as compared to the characteristic channel dimensions and at the same time are not thick enough to incur any EDL overlap. We consider the background flow to be combined electroosmotic and pressure-driven. We obtain closed form solutions for both velocity and temperature distribution in such narrow confinements with constant wall heat flux boundary condition. We discuss the effects of viscous dissipation and Joule heating on the Nusselt number (Nu), pinpointing distinctive implications in contrast to the cases with thin EDL limits.

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