DefinePK

Abstract

The DTM-Padé method, a combination of the differential transform method (DTM) and Padé approximants, is applied to provide highly accurate, stable and fast semi-numerical solutions for several nonlinear flow regimes of interest in electrohydrodynamic ion drag pumps, arising in chemical engineering processing. In both regimes studied, the transformed, dimensionless ordinary differential equations subject to realistic boundary conditions are solved with DTM-Padé and excellent correlation with numerical quadrature is achieved. The influence of electrical Reynolds number (ReE), electrical slip number (Esl), electrical source number (Es) and also electrical Hartmann number (Hae) are examined graphically. Applications of this study include novel ion drag pumps and astronautical micro-reactors. This study constitutes the first application of the DTM-Padé semi-computational algorithm to electrohydrodynamic biotechnology flows.Furthermore the range of solutions given significantly extends the existing computations in previous studies and provides a much more general analysis of ion drag pump electrohydrodynamics, of direct relevance to medical drug delivery systems.