The Investigation of the Hydrodynamic Drag of a Slit Microchannel with a Textured Wall

The results of numerical investigation of the hydrodynamic drag of a slit microchannel with a textured wall surface, as well as of the pressure drop in such a channel and the effective slip length on the wall for various Reynolds numbers, are presented. The channel height was 10 μm, and the length varied from 25 to 500 μm. It was found that the pressure drop in the textured microchannel was less than in a conventional one at any length. The dependences of the relative pressure drop, friction factor, and effective slip length on the Reynolds number were obtained for various channel lengths. A correlation that describes the dependence of the relative pressure drop on the Reynolds number for small channel lengths was proposed. The friction factor was described by a correlation expressed as 20 / Re. Keywords: microchannel, textured wall, wall slip, numerical simulation