Mass transfer of a neutral solute in porous microchannel under streaming potential

Abstract

The mass transport of a neutral solute in a porous wall, under the influence of streaming field, has been analyzed in this study. The effect of the induced streaming field on the electroviscous effect of the fluid for different flow geometries has been suitably quantified. The overall electroosmotic velocity profile and expression for streaming field have been obtained analytically using the Debye–Huckel approximation, and subsequently used in the analysis for the mass transport. The analysis shows that as the solution Debye length increases, the strength of the streaming field and, consequently, the electroviscous effect diminishes. The species transport equation has been coupled with Darcy's law for quantification of the permeation rate across the porous wall. The concentration profile inside the mass transfer boundary layer has been solved using the similarity transformation, and the Sherwood number has been calculated from the definition. In this study, the variation of the permeation rate and solute permeate concentration has been with the surface potential, wall retention factor and osmotic pressure coefficient has been demonstrated for both the circular as well as rectangular channel cross-section.