Electro-osmotic flow instability of viscoelastic fluids in a nanochannel

The study of the complex rheological properties of viscoelastic fluids in nanochannels will facilitate the application of nanofluidics in biomedical and other fields. However, the flow of viscoelastic fluids in nanochannels has significant instabilities, and numerical simulation failures are prone to occur at high Weissenberg numbers (Wi). In this study, the simplified Phan-Thien-Tanner viscoelastic fluid model is solved using the log-conformation tensor approach, and the effects of rheological parameters of the viscoelastic fluid, such as the Weissenberg number (Wi), extensibility parameter (epsilon), and viscosity ratio (beta), on the flow characteristics and flow instability within the nanochannel are investigated. The results indicate that the variation of rheological parameters of viscoelastic fluids has a significant effect on the flow state and flow instability of fluids in nanochannels. When the rheological parameters are in a specific range, the flow velocity and outlet current in the nanochannel exhibit relatively regular periodic fluctuations. As the flow transitions from an up-and-down moving single-vortex state to a symmetric double-vortex state, the average velocity of the central axis in the nanochannel is increased by about 15%. Furthermore, when Wi increases from 150 to 400, the length and height of the vortex increase by 50% and 100%, respectively.