Frictionless flow in small channels

Fluid flow in micro channels is gaining importance during the past few decades due to the emergence of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) which has developed several microfluidic devices. The no-slip boundary condition in micro channels is found to be invalid under several types of boundary conditions. During the course of the project, researches were done extensively on the slip models developed by researchers, the experimental and analytical studies of fluid flow in micro channels and the parameters that will affect slip. Models were developed and equations for the velocity profiles of the liquid, the gases and the slip length was derived. Comparisons with existing experimental results to calculate the air gap thickness were done to determine which models best fit the real life experiments. Some of the results calculated from the expressions are invalid. Although there are some results which are valid, the air gap/nanobubbles thicknesses calculated do not fall in the slip flow regime, i.e. the air gap thickness either fall in the transition or the free molecular regime, which will make the Navier-Stokes equation invalid for modelling. Although the results do not exactly prove that the boundary conditions used are valid for the slip length generated for the three experiments, it is nonetheless a step taken so that other possible boundary conditions could be explored. In addition, the results give an idea of which models fit more closely to the real life experiments.Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering