Abstract—Electrokinetics involves the study of liquid or particle motion under the action of an electric field. The applications of electrokinetics in the development of microfluidic devices have been widely attractive in the past decade. Electrokinetic devices generally require no external mechanical moving parts and can be made portable by replacing the power supply by small battery. Therefore, electrokinetic based microfluidic systems can serve as a viable tool in creating a Lab-On-a- Chip (LOC) for use in biological and chemical assays. Here analytical procedure is carried out to find out the solution of electroosmotic flow. The governing equations including the linearized Poisson-Boltzmann equation, the Cauchy momentum equation are solved to seek velocity distribution and flowrate. Then effect of electricfield frequency on velocity profile is studied. The effect of frequency,electric field and electric double layer thickness on flow rate is also studied. The problem is first treated by using analytical methods, but the quantitative estimates are obtained numerically with the help of the software MATHEMATICA. The study reveals that the flow is oscillatory and maximum positiveflow is obtained for electricfield frequency of 20 Hz and as electricfield strength increases, flow rate also increases.

Index Terms—Electrical double layer, Electroosmotic flow, Zeta potential

Cite: Vishnu S B and Ajith C Menon, "Mathematical Modelling of Electroosmotic Flow through a Slit Microchannel under the Influence of Time Varying Electricfield," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol.3, No.4, pp. 715-724, October 2014.