Roughness Effect on Pressure Drop for Electroosmotic (EO) Flow in Microtubes

This paper presents a theoretical model of the roughness effect on friction factor and pressure drop of fully developed, laminar flow in microtubes by considering the effect of the electrical double layer. The EDL potential distribution is calculated using the Poisson–Boltzmann equation and then the velocity profile is obtained by solving the fluid momentum equation with a body force term. The wall roughness in microtubes is modeled by utilizing a Gaussian, isotropic distribution. It is found that the effect of roughness is to increase the friction factor and pressure drop of the electroosmotic flow in microtubes.