Electro-Osmotic Instability and Chaos near Ion-Selective Surfaces

We present a “fluid dynamics video” showing results from direct numerical simulations of electrokinetic transport in a binary electrolyte in two systems: (1) next to an ion-selective membrane and (2) around a metallic cylinder. The governing equations are the Poisson–Nernst–Planck and Navier–Stokes and our DNS resolves the time and length scales associated with the thin electric double layers. Our results show transition to chaotic dynamics when the applied voltage across the characteristic length scale is above a threshold of approximately 0.5 Volt. More details, in particular regarding system (1), are given in our paper [Druzgalski et al. POF 25, 110804 (2013)].