Microscale fluid flow induced by thermoviscous expansion along a traveling wave

Abstract

The thermal expansion of a fluid combined with a temperature-dependent viscosity introduces nonlinearities in the Navier-Stokes equations unrelated to the convective momentum current. The couplings generate the possibility for net fluid flow at the microscale controlled by external heating. This novel thermo-mechanical effect is investigated for a thin fluid chamber by a numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes equations and analytically by a perturbation expansion. A demonstration experiment confirms the basic mechanism and quantitatively validates our theoretical analysis.

5 pages, 3 figures, accepted by Physical Review Letters