Shear-Dependent Boundary Slip in an Aqueous Newtonian Liquid

Vincent S. J. Craig; Chiara Neto; David R. M. Williams

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.054504

Shear-Dependent Boundary Slip in an Aqueous Newtonian Liquid

Vincent S. J. Craig, Chiara Neto, and David R. M. Williams

Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 054504 – Published 17 July 2001

Abstract

We report direct measurements of hydrodynamic drainage forces, which show clear evidence of boundary slip in a Newtonian liquid. The degree of boundary slip is found to be a function of the liquid viscosity and the shear rate, as characterized by the slip length, and is up to $\sim 20 nm$ . This has implications for confined biological systems, the permeability of microporous media, and for the lubrication of nanomachines, and will be important in the microcontrol of liquid flow. We also show that current theories of slip do not adequately describe the experimental data.

Received 18 January 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.054504

Authors & Affiliations

Vincent S. J. Craig^*, Chiara Neto^†, and David R. M. Williams^‡

Department of Applied Mathematics, Research School of Physical Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia

^*To whom correspondence should be addressed.Email address: vince.craig@anu.edu.au
^†Permanent address: Department of Chemistry, University of Florence, via Gino Capponi 9, 50121 Firenze, Italy.
^‡Permanent address: School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.