Using Direct Simulation Monte Carlo With Improved Boundary Conditions for Heat and Mass Transfer in Microchannels

2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Yang ◽  
J. J. Ye ◽  
J. Y. Zheng ◽  
I. Wong ◽  
C. K. Lam ◽  
...  

Micro-electromechanical systems and nano-electromechanical systems have attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. The flow and heat transfer behaviors of micromachines for separation applications are usually different from that of macro counterparts. In this paper, heat and mass transfer characteristics of rarefied nitrogen gas flows in microchannels are investigated using direct simulation Monte Carlo with improved pressure boundary conditions. The influence of aspect ratio and wall temperature on mass flowrate and wall heat flux in microchannels are studied parametrically. In order to examine the aspect ratio effect on heat and mass transfer behaviors, the wall temperature is set constant at 350 K and the aspect ratio of the microchannel varies from 5 to 20. The results show that as the aspect ratio increases, the velocity of the flow decreases, so does the mass flowrate. In a small aspect ratio channel, the heat transfer occurs throughout the microchannel; as the aspect ratio of the microchannel increases, the region of thermal equilibrium extends. To investigate the effects of wall temperature (Tw) on the mass flowrate and wall heat flux in a microchannel, the temperature of the incoming gas flow (Tin) is set constant at 300 K and the wall temperature varies from 200 K to 800 K while the aspect ratio is remained unchanged. Results show that majority of the wall heat flux stays within the channel entrance region and drops to nearly zero at the halfway in the channel. When Tw<Tin, under the restriction of pressure-driven condition and continuity of pressure, the molecular number density of the flow decreases along the flow direction after a short increase at the entrance region. When Tw>Tin, the molecular number density of the flow drops rapidly near the inlet and the temperature of the gas flow increases along the channel. As Tw increases, the flow becomes more rarefied, the mass flowrate decreases, and the resistance at the entrance region increases. Furthermore, when Tw>Tin, a sudden jump of heat transfer flux and temperature are observed at the exit region of the channel.

Author(s):  
J. J. Ye ◽  
J. Yang ◽  
P. Tang ◽  
J. Y. Zheng ◽  
W. Z. Li ◽  
...  

Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS) have become the focus of a great deal of attention in recent years. The flow and heat behaviors of micro-machines are usually different from that of macro-machines. In this paper, the heat and mass transfer characteristics of rarefied nitrogen gas flows in microchannels have been investigated using improved DSMC method. The influence of aspect ratio and wall temperature on the mass flowrate and wall heat flux in microchannels are studied parametrically. In order to examine the aspect ratio effect on heat and mass transfer, the wall temperature is set constant at 350 K, and the aspect ratio of the microchannel varies from 5 to 20. The results show that as the aspect ratio increases, the velocity of the flow decreases, and the mass flowrate also decreases. In a small aspect ratio channel, the heat transfer occurs throughout the microchannel, and as the aspect ratio of the microchannel increases, the region of thermal equilibrium becomes larger. To investigate the effects of wall temperature on heat and mass transfer, the aspect ratio of the microchannel is held constant at 10 and the wall temperature is changed from 300 K to 800 K. The results show that, when the wall temperature increases, the pressure increases slightly and the number density drops rapidly near the inlet. In addition, the Knudsen number increases as the wall temperature increases. It indicates that the increasing wall temperature of microchannel enhances the rarefaction of the gas flow. Moreover, as the wall temperature increases, the mass flowrate decreases, and the temperature will increase more rapidly near the inlet, with more heat transfer between the gas flow and the wall.


2018 ◽  
Vol 194 ◽  
pp. 01007
Author(s):  
Maria V. Bartashevich

Mathematical model of conjugated heat and mass transfer in absorption on the entrance region of the semi-infinite liquid film of lithium bromide water solution is investigated for different values of Froude number. The calculations shown that larger values of Froude number corresponds to a smaller thickness of the falling film. It was demonstrated that for large values of the Froude number the heat transfer from the surface is greater than for smaller values.


Author(s):  
X. Y. Xu ◽  
T. Ma ◽  
M. Zeng ◽  
Q. W. Wang

Due to the dramatic changes in physical properties, the flow and heat transfer in supercritical fluid are significantly affected by buoyancy effects, especially when the ratio of inlet mass flux and wall heat flux is relatively small. In this study, the heat transfer of supercritical water in uniformly heated vertical tube is numerically investigated with different buoyancy models which are based on different calculation methods of the turbulent heat flux. The applicabilities of these buoyancy models are analyzed both in heat transfer enhancement and deterioration conditions. The simulation results show that these buoyancy models make few differences and give good wall temperature prediction in heat transfer enhancement condition when the ratio of inlet mass flux and wall heat flux is very small. With the increase of wall heat flux, the accuracy of wall temperature prediction reduces, and the differences between these buoyancy models become larger. No buoyancy model can currently make accurate wall temperature prediction in deterioration condition in this study.


2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (08) ◽  
pp. 1550087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mojtaba Balaj ◽  
Hassan Akhlaghi ◽  
Ehsan Roohi

In this paper, we investigate the effects of convective heat transfer on the argon gas flow through micro/nanochannels subject to uniform wall heat flux (UWH) boundary condition using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. Both the hot wall (q wall > 0) and the cold wall (q wall < 0) cases are considered. We consider the effect of wall heat flux on the centerline pressure, velocity profile and mass flow rate through the channel in the slip regime. The effects of rarefaction, property variations and compressibility are considered. We show that UWH boundary condition leads to the thermal transpiration. Our investigations showed that this thermal transpiration enhances the heat transfer rate at the walls in the case of hot walls and decreases it where the walls are being cooled. We also show that the deviation of the centerline pressure distribution from the linear distribution depends on the direction of the wall heat flux.


Author(s):  
M. Boutaous ◽  
E. Pe´rot ◽  
A. Maazouz ◽  
P. Bourgin ◽  
P. Chantrenne

The process of rotational moulding consists in manufacturing plastic parts by heating a polymer powder in a biaxial rotating mould. In order to optimise the production cycle of this process, a complete simulation model has to be used. This model should describe the phenomena of heat and mass transfer in a moving granular media with phase change, coalescence, sintering, air evacuation and crystallization during the cooling stage. This paper focus on the study of heat and mass transfer in a quiescent polymer powder during the heating stage. An experimental device has been built. It consists in an open plane static mold on which an initial thickness, e, of a polymer powder is deposited. This powder is then heated until it melts. An inverse heat conduction method is used to determine the heat flux and temperature at the interface between the mold and the powder. This interfacial heat flux is taken as a boundary condition in a numerical heat transfer model witch takes into account the heat transfer in granular media with phase change, coalescence, sintering, air bubbles evacuation and rheological behaviour of the polymer. For the numerical simulation of the heat transfer, the apparent specific heat method is used. This approach allows to solve the same energy equation for all the material phases, so one do not have to calculate the melting front evolution. This fine modelling, close to the real physical phenomena makes it possible to estimate the temperature profile and the evolution of the polymer powder characteristics (phase change, air diffusion, viscosity, evolution of the thermophysical properties of the equivalent homogeneous medium, thickness reduction, air volume fraction...). Several results are then presented, and the influence of different parameters, like the thermal contact resistance, the process initial conditions and the polymer’s rheological characteristics are studied and commented. Indeed the predictions of the temperature rises in the polymer bed, agree well with the experimental measurements.


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