The analysis of thermal effects on the electro-osmotic flow in a microchannel with the Lattice Boltzmann method

In this paper the effects of the inlet fluid temperature on the electro-osmotic flow pattern in a two-dimensional microchannel with constant walls temperature is investigated with solving the governing equations by the Lattice Boltzmann method. The main objective of this research is to study the effects of temperature variations on the distribution of ions and consequently internal electric potential and velocity field. For make possible to use the Boltzmann ion distribution equation، cup mean temperature for every cross section of the microchannel is used. At the used Lattice Boltzmann method، LBGK model for modeling the Boltzmann collision function and the Zou-He boundary conditions method for velocity field has been used. Wang model for solving the Poisson-Boltzmann and He-Chen model for solving the energy equation has been used. The results show that، with increase the temperature difference between the inlet flow and the walls، the electro-osmotic flow rate increases. Also، observed that with decrease the external electric potential and the electric double layer thickness and increase the temperature difference at the inlet zone of the microchannel، a region with return flow is formed which can be used for controlling the internal flow pattern.