Electrokinetic slip flow of microfluidics in terms of streaming potential by a lattice Boltzmann method: A bottom-up approach

In traditional computational fluid dynamics, the effect of surface energetics on fluid flow is often ignored or translated into an arbitrary selected slip boundary condition in solving the Navier-Stokes equation. Using a bottom-up approach, we show in this paper that variation of surface energetics through intermolecular theory can be employed in a lattice Boltzmann method to investigate both slip and non-slip phenomena in microfluidics in conjunction with the description of electrokinetic phenomena for electrokinetic slip flow. Rather than using the conventional Navier-Stokes equation with a slip boundary condition, the description of electrokinetic slip flow in microfluidics is manifested by the more physical solid-liquid energy parameters, electrical double layer and contact angle in the mean-field description of the lattice Boltzmann method.