Unsteady Flow of Power Law Fluids With Wall Slip in Microducts

Abstract

Unsteady laminar nonlinear slip flow of power law fluids in a microchannel is investigated. The nonlinear partial differential equation resulting from the momentum balance is solved with linear as well as nonlinear boundary conditions at the channel wall. We prove the existence of the weak solution, develop a semi-analytical solution based on the pseudo-spectral-Galerkin and Tau methods, and discuss the influence and effect of the slip coefficient and power law index on the time-dependent velocity profiles. Larger slip at the wall generates increased velocity profiles, and this effect is further enhanced by increasing the power law index. Comparatively, the velocity of the Newtonian fluid is larger and smaller than that of the power law fluid for the same value of the slippage coefficient if the power index is smaller and larger, respectively, than one.