Optimizing the longitudinal and transverse electroosmotic pumping in a rectangular channel with horizontal baffle plates

Abstract

This paper presents a continued study to our previous work on electroosmotic (EO) flow in a channel with vertical baffle plates by further investigating EO flow through an array of baffle plates arranged in parallel to the channel walls. The flow may be driven either in the direction along or in the direction transverse to the plates, thus distinguishing the longitudinal EO pumping (LEOP) and the transverse EO pumping (TEOP). In both types of EO pumping, it is more interesting to examine the cases when the baffle plates develop a higher zeta potential (denoted by α) than that on the channel walls (β). This semi-analytical study enables us to compare between LEOP and TEOP in the pumping efficiency under similar conditions. The TEOP case is more difficult to solve due to the higher order governing partial differential equations caused by the induced non-uniform pressure gradient distribution. In particular, we examine how the EO pumping rates deviate from those predicted by the Helmholtz-Smoluchowski velocity and illustrate the general trend of optimizing the EO pumping rates with respect to the physical and geometric parameters involved.