investigation of nonlinear electrokinetic and rheological behaviors of typical non-newtonian biofluids through annular microchannels

Electroosmosis is the predominant mechanism for flow generation in lab-on-chip devices. since most biofluids encountered in these devices reveal non-newtonian behavior, a special understanding of the fundamental physics of the relevant transport phenomena seems vital for an accurate design of such miniaturized devices. in this study, a numerical analysis is presented to explore transport characteristics of typical non-newtonian biofluids through annular microchannels under combined action of pressure and electrokinetic forces. the flow is considered steady and hydrodynamically fully developed. a finite difference method is used to solve the poisson-boltzmann and cauchy momentum equations, while the classical boundary condition of no velocity-slip for the flow field is applied. the poisson-boltzmann equation is solved in the exact form without using the debye-hückel approximation. after numerically solving the governing equations, role of the key parameters in hydrodynamic behavior of the flow is analyzed and discussed.