Effect of Molecular Interactions between the Solid Wall and Liquid on the Flow Properties in Microtubes

The flow properties in microtubes, such as velocity profiles and pressure distributions, are different from those in macrotubes. We attribute this phenomenon to the molecular interactions between the solid wall and inner liquid. The apparent viscosity, which takes into consideration the molecular interactions, is introduced in the present study and the Navier-Stokes equations are solved. Water is adopted in the calculation. For the hydrophilic material wall, the water is more like to adhere to the wall. The velocity near the wall is smaller than that of conventional theory, while the centerline velocity and pressure gradients are much larger. Such a phenomenon becomes much more obvious with the decrease in tube diameter.