Slip-Flow and Conjugate Heat Transfer in Rectangular Microchannels
Slip-flow and conjugate heat transfer in rectangular microchannels are studied numerically for thermally developing laminar flow subjected to constant wall temperature (T) and constant wall heat flux (H2) boundary conditions. A three-dimensional numerical code based on finite volume method is developed to solve the coupled energy equations in the wall and fluid regions together with temperature jump at the wall-fluid boundary. A modified convection-diffusion coefficient at the wall-fluid interface is defined to incorporate the temperature-jump boundary condition. The numerical code is validated by comparing the present results with the published data. The effect of rarefaction and wall conduction on the heat transfer in the entrance region is analyzed in detail. Results show that the wall conduction has a considerable influence on the developing Nusselt number along the channel for the H2 boundary condition, particularly at low Knudsen numbers. In the case of the T thermal boundary condition, negligible influence of wall conduction on the Nusselt number is observed for all Knudsen numbers considered.