Numerical simulation of heat transfer in rectangular microchannel

Yao, Jun, Yao, Yufeng, Mason, Peter J. and Patel, Mayur (2009) Numerical simulation of heat transfer in rectangular microchannel. Advances in Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, 1 (2). pp. 231-241. ISSN 2070-0733 (print) 2075-1354 (electronic)

Abstract

Numerical simulation of heat transfer in a high aspect ratio rectangular microchannel with heat sinks has been conducted, similar to an experimental study. Three channel heights measuring 0.3 mm, 0.6mmand 1mmare considered and the Reynolds number varies from 300 to 2360, based on the hydraulic diameter. Simulation starts with the validation study on the Nusselt number and the Poiseuille number variations along the channel streamwise direction. It is found that the predicted Nusselt number has shown very good agreement with the theoretical estimation, but some discrepancies are noted in the Poiseuille number comparison. This observation however is in consistent with conclusions made by other researchers for the same flow problem. Simulation continues on the evaluation of heat transfer characteristics, namely the friction factor and the thermal resistance. It is found that noticeable scaling effect happens at small channel height of 0.3 mm and the predicted friction factor agrees fairly well with an experimental based correlation. Present simulation further reveals that the thermal resistance is low at small channel height, indicating that the heat transfer performance can be enhanced with the decrease of the channel height.

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