Unsteady Electroosmotic Flow of Jeffrey Fluid in a Circular Microchannel under the Combined Action of Vertical Magnetic Field, External Electric Field, and Pressure at High Zeta Potential

Abstract

The unsteady electroosmotic flow (EOF) for one kind of linear viscoelastic fluid, which is Jeffrey type fluid, is investigated under the common impact of vertical magnetic field, external electric field, and pressure at high Zeta potential in a circular microchannel. The numerical solutions of the potential and velocity distributions are obtained by solving the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation, the constitutive equation of the Jeffrey fluid, and the Cauchy momentum equation applying the Chebyshev spectral method and the finite difference method. By contrast, the Chebyshev spectral method has higher accuracy and less computation. The flow characteristics of Jeffrey fluid at high Zeta potential are analyzed with the numerical solution obtained by the Chebyshev spectral method. The results show that the velocity of Jeffrey fluid increases with the increase of the wall Zeta potential and electric width. The oscillation amplitude of velocity distribution increases with the increase of relaxation time but decreases with the increase of retardation time. When the Hartmann number is smaller, the increase of relaxation time leads to the increase of velocity; when the Hartmann number is larger, the increase of relaxation time leads to the decrease of velocity. No matter what the Hartmann number is, the velocity always decreases with the increase of the retardation time. The velocity tends to be stable gradually with the increase of time.