Measurement of velocity profiles in a rectangular microchannel with aspect ratio <Emphasis Type="Italic">α</Emphasis> = 0.35

In this work, we measured 14 horizontal velocity profiles along the vertical direction of a rectangular microchannel with aspect ratio α = h/w = 0.35 (h is the height of the channel and w is the width of the channel) using microPIV at Re = 1.8 and 3.6. The experimental velocity profiles are compared with the full 3D theoretical solution, and also with a Poiseuille parabolic profile. It is shown that the experimental velocity profiles in the horizontal and vertical planes are in agreement with the theoretical profiles, except for the planes close to the wall. The discrepancies between the experimental data and 3D theoretical results in the center vertical plane are less than 3.6%. But the deviations between experimental data and Poiseuille’s results approaches 5%. It indicates that 2D Poiseuille profile is no longer a perfect theoretical approximation since α = 0.35. The experiments also reveal that, very near the hydrophilic wall (z = 0.5–1 μm), the measured velocities are significantly larger than the theoretical velocity based on the no-slip assumption. A proper discussion on some physical effects influencing the near wall velocity measurement is given.