Fluid flow and convective heat transfer in flat microchannels

This study investigates the design, construction and instrumentation of an experimental microchannel, with a rectangular cross-section and large aspect ratio, that allows characterization of the flow and convective heat transfer under well defined and precise conditions and makes it possible to vary the hydraulic diameter of the microchannel. The flow friction coefficient is estimated by direct pressure drop measurements inside the microchannel in a zone where the flow is fully developed. Since the wall thermal conditions inside the microchannel can not be measured directly, their estimation requires temperature measurements in the wall thickness and an inverse heat conduction method. The thermal and hydrodynamic results obtained by varying the hydraulic diameter between 1 mm and 100 μm do not deviate from the theory or empirical correlations for large-scale channels. These results let us confirm that for smooth walls the continuum mechanics laws for convection and fluid mechanics remain valid in microchannels of hydraulic diameter greater than or equal to 100 μm.     

Fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in rectangular microchannels

Experiments were conducted to investigate flow and heat transfer characteristics of water in rectangular microchannels. All tests were performed with deionized water. The flow rate, the pressures, and temperatures at the inlet and outlet were measured. The friction factor, heat flux, and Nusselt number were obtained. The friction factor in the microchannel is lower than the conventional value. That is only 20% to 30% of the convectional value. The critical Reynolds number below which the flow remains laminar in the microchannel is also lower than the conventional value. The Nusselt number in the microchannel is quite different from the conventional value. The Nusselt number for the microchannel is lower than the conventional value when the flow rate is small. As the flow rate through the microchannel is increased, the Nusselt number significantly increases and exceeds the value of Nusselt number for the fully developed flow in the conventional channel. The micro‐scale effect was exhibited. The Nusselt number is also affected by the heat flux. The Nusselt number remains the constant value when the flow rate is small. The Nusselt number increases with the increase in the heat flux when the flow rate is large. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 37(4): 197–207, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20206     

Two-Phase Flow Patterns and Heat Transfer in Parallel Microchannels

MicroChannel heat sinks with two-phase flow can satisfy the increasing heat removal requirements of modern micro electronic devices. One of the important aspects associated with two- phase flows in microchannels is to study the bubble behavior. However, in the literature most of the reports present data of only a single channel. This does not account for flow mixing and hydrodynamic instability that occurs in parallel microchannels, connected by common inlet and outlet collectors. In the present study, experiments were performed for air- water and steam- water flow in parallel triangular microchannels with a base of 200-300μ m. The experimental study is based on systematic measurements of temperature and flow pattern by infrared radiometry and high-speed digital video imaging. In air-water flow, different flow patterns were observed simultaneously in the various microchannels at a fixed values of water and gas flow rates. In steam-water flow, instability in uniformly heated microchannels was observed.     

Numerical computation of fluid flow and heat transfer in microchannels

Three-dimensional fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena inside heated microchannels is investigated. The steady, laminar flow and heat transfer equations are solved using a finite-volume method. The numerical procedure is validated by comparing the predicted local thermal resistances with available experimental data. The friction factor is also predicted in this study. It was found that the heat input lowers the frictional losses, particularly at lower Reynolds numbers. At lower Reynolds numbers the temperature of the water increases, leading to a decrease in the viscosity and hence smaller frictional losses.     

Analytical modeling of electrokinetic effects on flow and heat transfer in microchannels

A fundamental understanding of electrolytic flow in microchannels is essential for the design of microfluidic devices. Hence, an analytic investigation is presented on the effects of electrostatic potential in microchannels. Solving the Navier–Stokes equations, an expression for the C_fRe product is presented. Solving the energy equation the Nusselt number for constant wall heat flux and constant wall temperature boundary conditions are presented with analytic expressions over a wide range of operating conditions.     

Fluid flow and heat transfer of liquid-liquid two phase flow in microchannels: A review

The fluid flow and heat transfer behavior of liquid–liquid two phase flows have led to significantly improve the heat transfer rates in microchannels. Both numerical and experimental studies are reviewed in this paper to gain useful insights into the effect of a number of parameters such as film thickness, Peclet number, working fluid and flow geometry on hydrodynamic and thermal behavior of microchannels using liquid-liquid two phase flow. In addition, the paper summarises information about common correlations proposed to predict the pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient in the form of Nusselt number (Nu). The present study shows that there is little agreement across the literature between measured pressure drop and Nusselt number and predictions based on these correlations. Finally, the conclusions and important summaries, and some possible future development of this field are presented.     

Mixed symbolic–numerical computation of convective heat transfer with slip flow in microchannels

Steady-state convection heat transfer is analytically solved for laminar flow inside microchannels formed by parallel-plates, making use of the integral transform method and the exact analytical solution of the corresponding eigenvalue problem in terms of confluent hypergeometric functions. A mixed symbolic–numerical algorithm is developed under the Mathematica platform. The paper was also prepared in the Mathematica notebook format, available upon request, allowing for the immediate reproduction of the results and comprehension of the symbolic and computational rules developed.     

Numerical study of ferrofluid flow and heat transfer in the presence of a non‐uniform magnetic field in rectangular microchannels

This paper presents a numerical investigation of the hydro‐thermal behavior of a ferrofluid in rectangular minichannels in the presence of a non‐uniform magnetic field using a two‐phase mixture model and control volume technique. Effects of increasing the diameter of nanoparticles, and channel aspect ratio have also been studied. It is concluded that the magnetic field with a negative gradient increases the Nusselt number and the rate of this increment depends on the channel aspect ratio. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj ). DOI 10.1002/htj.21004     

Thermally developing flow and heat transfer in rectangular microchannels of different aspect ratios

Laminar convective heat transfer in the entrance region of microchannels of rectangular cross-section is investigated under circumferentially uniform wall temperature and axially uniform wall heat flux thermal boundary conditions. Three-dimensional numerical simulations were performed for laminar thermally developing flow in microchannels of different aspect ratios. Based on the temperature and heat flux distributions obtained, both the local and average Nusselt numbers are presented graphically as a function of the dimensionless axial distance and channel aspect ratio. Generalized correlations, useful for the design and optimization of microchannel heat sinks and other microfluidic devices, are proposed for predicting Nusselt numbers. The proposed correlations are compared with other conventional correlations and with available experimental data, and show very good agreement.     

Boiling heat transfer in rectangular microchannels with reentrant cavities

This paper investigates flow boiling of water in microchannels with a hydraulic diameter of 227 μm possessing 7.5 μm wide reentrant cavities on the sidewalls. Average two-phase heat transfer coefficients and CHF conditions have been obtained over a range of effective heat fluxes (28–445 W/cm²) and mass velocities (41–302 kg/m² s). High Boiling number and Reynolds number have been found to promote convective boiling, while Nucleate Boiling dominated at low Reynolds number and Boiling number. A criterion for the transition between nucleate and convective boiling has been provided. Existing correlations did not provide satisfactory agreement with the heat transfer coefficient but did predict CHF conditions well.     

An experimental study of flow friction and heat transfer in wavy microchannels with rectangular cross section

Experimental investigation has been conducted on the flow friction and heat transfer in sinusoidal microchannels with rectangular cross sections. The microchannels considered consist of ten identical wavy units with average width of about 205 μm, depth of 404 μm, wavelength of 2.5 mm and wavy amplitude of 0–259 μm. Each test piece is made of copper and contains 60–62 wavy microchannels in parallel. Deionized water is employed as the working fluid and the Reynolds numbers considered range from about 300 to 800. The experimental results, mainly the overall Nusselt number and friction factor, for wavy microchannels are compared with those of straight baseline channels with the same cross section and footprint length. It is found that the heat transfer performance of the present wavy microchannels is much better than that of straight baseline microchannels; at the same time the pressure drop penalty of the present wavy microchannels can be much smaller than the heat transfer enhancement. Conjugate simulation based on the classical continuum approach is also carried out for similar experimental conditions, the numerical results agree reasonably well with experimental data.     

Friction losses and heat transfer of single-phase flow in a mini-channel

Experimental frictional pressure drop and heat transfer during single phase flow in a vertical mini-channel have been studied with the aim of determining the validity of classical correlations available for conventional size channels. A 1 mm square channel etched in a 420 mm long test section of aluminum has been investigated. The Reynolds number has been varied from 310 to 7780 in order to cover the laminar regime as well as the beginning of the turbulent regime. The heat flux supplied to the fluid varies from 1 kW/m² to 8 kW/m². Experimental frictional pressure drop measurements show that classical correlations accurately apply. Temperature measurements along the channel show that the temperature profile is drastically different from the expected linear behaviour owing to an important longitudinal heat flux in the channel wall. This heat flux mal-distribution which has been recently discussed in the literature is clearly shown and studied in more details by a numerical simulation of the experiment. This numerical work has allowed to make a correction on temperature measurements. Once corrected, the heat transfer measurements are in fair agreement with the classical literature results.     

Conduction and entrance effects on laminar liquid flow and heat transfer in rectangular microchannels

The paper presents both three and two-dimensional numerical analysis of convective heat transfer in microchannels. The three-dimensional geometry of the microchannel heat sink followed the details of the experimental facility used during a previous research step. The heat sink consisted of a very high aspect ratio rectangular microchannel. Two channel spacings, namely 1 mm and 0.3 mm (0.1 mm), were used for three-dimensional (two-dimensional) numerical model, respectively. Water was employed as the cooling liquid. The Reynolds number ranged from 200 to 3000. In the paper, thermal entrance effects and conduction/convection coupling effects are considered both for the test case of uniform channel inlet conditions and the complete geometry of the experiment. Finally, the comparison between measured and computed heat flux and temperature fields is presented. Contrary to the experimental work, the numerical analysis did not reveal any significant scale effect on heat transfer in microchannel heat sink down to the smallest size considered (0.1 mm).     

Numerical simulation of roughness effects on flow and heat transfer in microchannels at slip flow regime

A numerical simulation for studying fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in microchannels at slip flow regime with consideration of slip and temperature jump is studied. The wall roughness is simulated in two cases with periodically distributed triangular microelements and random shaped micro peaks distributed on the wall surfaces. Various Knudsen numbers have used to investigate the effects of rarefaction. The numerical results have also checked with available theoretical and experimental relations and good agreements has achieved. It has been found that rarefaction has more significant effect on flow field in microchannels with higher relative roughness. The negative influence of roughness on fluid flow and heat transfer found to be the friction factor increment and Nusselt number reduction. In addition high influence of roughness distribution and shape has been shown by a comparison of Poiseuille and Nusselt numbers for tow different cases.     

Transient conjugate heat transfer in straight microchannels

Many theoretical and experimental studies have been carried out in order to study the flow and heat transfer in microchannels. In the recent years, numerical simulation has been applied to investigate the problem under a variety of conditions. However, much of the focus has been on steady-state problems and time-dependent transport has received relatively minor attention, despite its importance in practical electronic devices and systems. Employing a versatile commercial code, this paper aims to examine heat removal from straight rectangular microchannels affected by a time-dependent heat flux input. Both cosinusoidal variation and step-change application and removal of a uniform heat source are studied to determine the response time of the system. For the fluid phase, the two-dimensional momentum and energy equations are solved, considering temperature dependent properties and viscous dissipation. The effects of the amplitude of the heat flux variation, inlet velocity, and geometry, including the thickness of the heat sink, are investigated. Channels of smaller width are found to be more sensitive to the heat flux source, especially for higher input values. The velocity represents the most important parameter for channels of greatest width considered here, as it directly affects the fluid dynamics and the pressure drop when a time-dependent heat source is applied to the system.     

Numerical study of hydrodynamic and heat transfer of nanofluid flow in microchannels containing micromixer

In this study heat transfer and fluid flow of Al₂O₃/water nanofluid in two dimensional parallel plate microchannel without and with micromixers have been investigated for nanoparticle volume fractions of ϕ = 0, ϕ = 4%  and base fluid Reynolds numbers of Re_f = 5, 20, 50. One baffle on the bottom wall and another on the top wall work as a micromixer and heat transfer enhancement device. A single-phase finite difference FORTRAN code using Projection method has been written to solve governing equations with constant wall temperature boundary condition. The effect of various parameters such as nanoparticle volume fraction, base fluid Reynolds number, baffle distance, height and order of arrangement have been studied. Results showed that the presence of baffles and also increasing the Re number and nanoparticle volume fraction increase the local and averaged heat transfer and friction coefficients. Also, the effect of nanoparticle volume fraction on heat transfer coefficient is more than the friction coefficient in most of the cases. It was found that the main mechanism of enhancing heat transfer or mixing is the recirculation zones that are created behind the baffles. The size of these zones increases with Reynolds number and baffle height. The fluid pushing toward the wall by the opposed wall baffle and reattaching of separated flow are the locations of local maximum heat transfer and friction coefficients.     

Fully developed electro-osmotic heat transfer in microchannels

Thermally fully developed, electro-osmotically generated convective transport has been analyzed for a parallel plate microchannel and circular microtube under imposed constant wall heat flux and constant wall temperature boundary conditions. Such a flow is established not by an imposed pressure gradient, but by a voltage potential gradient along the length of the tube. The result is a combination of unique electro-osmotic velocity profiles and volumetric heating in the fluid due to the imposed voltage gradient. The exact solution for the fully developed, dimensionless temperature profile and corresponding Nusselt number have been determined analytically for both geometries and both thermal boundary conditions. The fully developed temperature profiles and Nusselt number are found to depend on the relative duct radius (ratio of the Debye length to duct radius or plate gap half-width) and the magnitude of the dimensionless volumetric source.     

Investigation of heat transfer in rectangular microchannels

An experimental investigation was conducted to explore the validity of classical correlations based on conventional-sized channels for predicting the thermal behavior in single-phase flow through rectangular microchannels. The microchannels considered ranged in width from 194 μm to 534 μm, with the channel depth being nominally five times the width in each case. Each test piece was made of copper and contained ten microchannels in parallel. The experiments were conducted with deionized water, with the Reynolds number ranging from approximately 300 to 3500. Numerical predictions obtained based on a classical, continuum approach were found to be in good agreement with the experimental data (showing an average deviation of 5%), suggesting that a conventional analysis approach can be employed in predicting heat transfer behavior in microchannels of the dimensions considered in this study. However, the entrance and boundary conditions imposed in the experiment need to be carefully matched in the predictive approaches.