Electroosmotic Flow in Fractal Tree‐Like Convergent Microchannel Network

Abstract

Electroosmotic flow (EOF) in a fractal tree‐like microfluidic network has wide applications. To reduce the fluid resistance of EOF in the network, this paper numerically studies the influences of the branch convergence α, the level convergence κ, the length ratio λ, the branching number N, the maximum branching level M, and the channel height H of a fractal tree‐like convergent microchannel network (FTCMCN) on the EOF flowrate and analyzes the optimal structure of FTCMCN to maximize the EOF transport efficiency. The present paper finds the optimal structure of FTCMCN and its dependence on the various geometric and structural parameters. This work is beneficial to the optimization design of the FTCMCN to achieve the highest EOF transport efficiency.