Electrokinetic-Driven Flow and Heat Transfer of a Non-Newtonian Fluid in a Circular Microchannel

An analytical analysis is presented to explore the transport characteristics of electroosmotic flow and associated heat transfer of non-Newtonian power-law fluids in a circular microchannel. The approach selected here is based on the linearized Poisson–Boltzmann distribution equation to get analytical expressions for velocity and temperature profiles, the friction coefficient, and the fully-developed Nusselt number. The key parameters governing the problem include the flow behavior index, the length scale ratio (ratio of half channel diameter to Debye length), and the thermal scale ratio. The results reveal that increasing the length scale ratio tends to increase the friction coefficient. For surface heating, increasing the flow behavior index amplifies the temperature difference between the wall and the fluid, and thus the temperature distribution broadens; while the opposite trend is observed for surface cooling. Depending on the value of the thermal scale ratio, the fully-developed Nusselt number can be either increased or decreased by increasing the flow behavior index and/or the length scale ratio. The effect of flow behavior index on the Nusselt number vanishes as the length scale ratio approaches infinity.