Meshless analysis of steady-state electro-osmotic transport

An emerging technology in the area of microsystems is micro-total analysis systems (mu TAS) for biological sample analysis. We have simulated electro- osmosis-a common transport mechanism within these devices-by developing mes hless techniques. Numerical simulation of electro-osmotic transport require s the solution of the Laplace equation, the Poisson-Boltzmann equation and the incompressible Stokes or Navier-Stokes equations. We describe the devel opment and implementation of meshless techniques for all the governing equa tions. In particular, we introduce a stabilized Stokes solver for very-low Reynolds number flows and a multistep Navier-Stokes solver for a wide range of Reynolds number flows. We have analyzed electro-osmotic transport in th ree geometries typically encountered in biological devices: a straight chan nel, a cross-shaped intersection, and a T-shaped intersection.