An Analytical Solution to Neumann-Type Mixed Boundary Poiseuille Microfluidic Flow in Rectangular Channel Cross-Sections (Slip/No-Slip) including a Numerical Technique to Derive It

Abstract

In most microfluidic applications, pressure-driven Poiseuille flow in a contained cross-section with no-slip boundary conditions is the underlying fluid-mechanical model. Solutions for this problem exist for many known cross-sections. We have recently demonstrated a simple method to solve the relevant Poisson equation using a finite difference scheme in a spreadsheet analysis tool such as Microsoft Excel. The numerical solutions obtained from such a spreadsheet are close-to-exact to the analytical solutions with errors on the order of only a few percent. However, there are numerous applications in microfluidics for which the no-slip boundary condition is not valid. Examples include drag-reducing air-retaining surfaces as well as open-channel flow. For these scenarios few to no analytical models exist. In this paper, we derive an analytical model for mixed boundary conditions (slip/no-slip) in two dimensions in a rectangular channel cross-section. We also demonstrate that the equivalent numerical solution can be derived conveniently by adaption of the spreadsheet. In general, mixed boundary-type flow scenarios are especially difficult to solve analytically whereas numerical solutions can be derived using Microsoft Excel within seconds.