Fluid viscoelasticity suppresses chaotic convection and mixing due to electrokinetic instability

When two fluids of different electrical conductivities are transported side by side in a microfluidic device under the influence of an electric field, an electrokinetic instability (EKI) is often generated after some critical values of the applied electric field strength and conductivity ratio. Many prior experimental and numerical studies show that this phenomenon results in a chaotic flow field inside a microdevice, thereby facilitating the mixing of two fluids if they are Newtonian in behavior. However, the present numerical study shows that this chaotic convection arising due to the electrokinetic instability can be suppressed if the fluids are viscoelastic instead of Newtonian ones. In particular, we observe that as the Weissenberg number (ratio of the elastic to that of the viscous forces) gradually increases and the polymer viscosity ratio (ratio of the solvent viscosity to that of the zero-shear rate viscosity of the polymeric solution) gradually decreases, the chaotic fluctuation inside a T microfluidic junction decreases within the present range of conditions encompassed in this study. We demonstrate that this suppression of the chaotic motion occurs due to the formation of a strand of high elastic stresses at the interface of the two fluids. We further show that this suppression of the chaotic fluctuation (particularly, the span-wise one) inhibits the mixing of two viscoelastic fluids. Therefore, one needs to be cautious when the EKI phenomenon is planned to use for mixing such viscoelastic fluids. Our observations are in line with that seen in limited experimental studies conducted for these kinds of viscoelastic fluids. Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.

Automated summary

In a microfluidic device with two fluids of different electrical conductivities transported side by side under the influence of an electric field, an electrokinetic instability (EKI) can be generated, leading to chaotic flow fields and enhancing mixing if the fluids are Newtonian. However, this chaotic convection can be suppressed in viscoelastic fluids due to the formation of high elastic stress chains at the fluid interface. This suppression inhibits mixing of the viscoelastic fluids, cautioning against the use of EKI for such fluids.