The Impacts of Viscoelastic Behavior on Electrokinetic Energy Conversion for Jeffreys Fluid in Microtubes

Abstract

In this paper, the electrokinetic energy conversion (EKEC) efficiency, streaming potential of viscoelastic fluids in microtubes under an external transversal magnetic field, and an axial pressure gradient are investigated. The Jeffreys fluid is applied to model the viscoelastic fluid, and the analytic solution of velocity field is obtained using the Green’s function method. The influence of different dimensionless parameters, for instance, the Deborah numbers De and De*, which are related to the relaxation time and retardation time, respectively; the dimensionless electro-kinetic width K; the dimensionless frequency ω; the volume fraction of the nanoparticles φ and the dimensionless Hartmann number Ha; and three different imposed axial periodic pressure gradients (cosine, triangular, and square) on fluid dynamics are discussed. The physical quantities are graphically described, and the influence of different parameters on the EKEC is analyzed. The results indicate that De promotes the streaming potential and EKEC efficiency of the microtube, while De* inhibits them.