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Updated: Apr 18, 2026

Generation and Control of Electrohydrodynamic Flows in Aqueous Electrolyte Solutions
Published on: September 7, 2018
Electro-magneto-kinetic thermo-fluid-structure interactions of viscoelastic electrolytes through soft
1Hydrodynamics and Thermal Multiphysics Laboratory (HTML), Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal-721302, India. apurba.royin@gmail.com.
Abstract:
A coupled electro-magneto-hydrodynamic (EMHD) framework for a viscoelastic electrolyte (of Phan-Thien-Tanner (PTT) fluid rheology) flowing through a compliant micro-confinement with linearly elastic walls is developed. The flow is driven by a combination of an imposed pressure gradient and externally applied electric and magnetic fields. Closed-form perturbation solutions are obtained for the velocity, pressure, wall deformation, and temperature. Fluid-structure interactions (FSI) are examined against four parameters: Debye-Huckel parameter (), Weissenberg number (Wi), Hartmann number (Ha), and electrical Reynolds number (S). We show that favourable pressure gradients drive wall contractions towards a converging channel, while adverse gradients cause wall expansion to a diverging geometry. Observations also show that reduces the pressure requirement through electroosmotic pumping; Wi induces shear-thinning that flattens velocity profiles; Ha has a dual effect - assistive at low Ha and resistive at higher Ha due to Lorentz drag; and S is consistently assistive, lowering the required pressure drop and enhancing near-wall transport. Thermal behaviour is characterized using three parameters-the Biot number (Bi), the Peclet number (Pe), and the wall-to-fluid conductivity ratio (kr): higher Bi improves cooling via wall-environment exchange, larger Pe increases axial thermal advection and raises fluid temperature, and higher kr facilitates heat removal and limits thermal buildup. Collectively, the insights provide a systematic approach for regulating hydrodynamic resistance and thermal loading in deformable EMHD microsystems, with potential applications in bio-lab-on-chip technologies and microscale thermal management platforms.
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