The effect of stochastic nano-scale surface roughness on microfluidic flow in computational microchannels

......................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1 Microchannels in Biomedical Devices .................................................................................. 1 Research Motivation ............................................................................................................. 2 Thesis Organization............................................................................................................... 3 References ............................................................................................................................. 4 CHAPTER 2. NANO-SCALE SURFACE ROUGHNESS AFFECTS LOW RE FLOW: EXPERIMENTS AND MODELING ........................................................................ 5 Abstract ................................................................................................................................. 5 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 5 Experimental Setup: Fabrication, characterization, and visualization .................................. 7 Modeling Framework: Mesh generation and solution technique .......................................... 9 Results and Discussion ........................................................................................................ 10 Conclusions and Outlook .................................................................................................... 15 References ........................................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 3. INVESTIGATING THE EFFECT OF NANO-SCALE SURFACE ROUGHNESS ON MICROFLUIDIC NEWTONIAN FLUID FLOW ............... 20 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 20 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 21 Computational Domain Construction.................................................................................. 26 Microchannel Roughness: Experimental Manufacturing ................................................ 27 Microchannel Roughness: Characterization .................................................................... 29 Governing Equations: Newtonian Fluid .......................................................................... 30 Validity of Continuum Hypothesis .................................................................................. 31 Validity of No-Slip Boundary Condition ........................................................................ 31 Computational Methods ...................................................................................................... 33 CFD Microchannel Grid .................................................................................................. 33