Numerical study of electroosmotic (EO) flow in microfabricated EO pump with overlapped electrical double layer (EDL)

Micropump is an important component for the development of micro absorption heat pump systems. To study the performance of microfabricated EO pump with the dimension comparable to the electrical double layer (EDL), a model avoiding the use of the Boltzmann equation was developed to investigate the EO flow instead of using the Poisson–Boltzmann (PB) equation. Generally used Debye–Huckle approximation and symmetric condition are also not involved so this model can be applied in the more complicated EO micropumps. Numerical simulation was carried out to study the distributions of potential, ions and net charge density in the EO micropump. Comparison between the present model and the PB equation was conducted. Using the present model, the EO flow in the EO micropump with overlapped EDL was investigated. It shows that the flow is quite different from the channel with dimension much larger than the EDL, which exhibits plug-like flow characteristics. The errors induced by the PB equation for the pumps with different depths were evaluated. It shows that the accuracy of the PB equation is not good when the EO pump is very thin.