Capillary penetration in corrugated Hele-Shaw cells

A. Medina

ESIME Azcapotzalco, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico

E-mail: amedinao@ipn.mx

ABSTRACT

In this work we present a theoretical study of the spontaneous capillary flow of a viscous liquid into the gap between a couple of parallel corrugated plates (Hele-Shaw cell). The corrugation of the interior walls of the plates is assumed as a sine-like pattern, transverse to the flow direction. Such a configuration may be assumed as a simple idealization of the capillary flow through nanofabricated channels with rough interior walls where the flow is subject to smooth changes in the size of gap. By using the lubrication theory we found that a very peculiar temporal flow is developed which could be of interest to improve nano mixing processes.

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