Effect of variable slip boundary conditions on flows of pressure driven non-Newtonian fluids

In microfluidic devices it has been suggested a scheme for enhancing the mixing of two fluids is to use patterned, slip boundary conditions. This has been shown to induce significant transverse flow for Newtonian fluids [S.C. Hendy, M. Jasperse, J. Burnell, Effect of patterned slip on micro- and nanofluidic flows, Phys. Rev. E 72 (2005) 016303]. Here we study the effect of patterned slip on non-Newtonian fluids. Using a power-law model it is shown for shear-thickening fluids patterned slip can induce significant transverse flows comparable in size to those produced for Newtonian fluids. However, for shear-thinning fluids this transverse flow is suppressed. We predict a convenient way to increase the transverse flow for shear-thinning fluids is to use a patterned slip boundary condition coupled to a sinusoidally time-varying pressure gradient. This system is studied using a simple linearized White–Metzner model which has a power-law viscosity function [R.B. Bird, R.C. Armstrong, O. Hassager, Dynamics of Polymeric Liquids, Volume 1: Fluid Mechanics, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1987]. In this case it is shown the two variations combine to produce transverse flow, which can be increased by increasing the frequency of the sinusoidal time-dependent fluctuation.