Electrokinetically augmented load bearing capacity of a deformable microfluidic channel

Abstract

Electrokinetics of deformable interfaces holds the key in developing bio-mimetic micro-devices for probing microvascular physiology and performing in vitro bio-analytical procedures. While such systems have been analyzed in the literature with the aid of a set of simplifying assumptions to some extent, implications of axial modulations in the surface potential and interfacial slip, otherwise ominous artifacts of the coupling between intrinsic electro-chemistry and substrate wettability in practical realms of surface engineering, remain grossly unaddressed in the same context. Here, we bring out the interplay of the wall compliance, periodically modulated surface potential, and patterned interfacial slip that is itself coupled with the interfacial electrochemistry, toward altering the internal hydrodynamics of a deformable microfluidic channel. Manifested in terms of a perturbed pressure field, this essentially leads to an alteration in the load bearing capacity of the concerned electro-mechanical system. By exploiting this unique coupling of the interfacial electro-mechanics, hydrodynamics, and substrate elasticity, we further demonstrate the plausibility of a significant augmentation in the load bearing capacity of the resulting system, over favorable parametric regimes. This opens up emerging possibilities of developing novel electro-kinetically modulated lubricated systems with giant augmentations in their load bearing performance.