Numerical Investigation of Fully Developed Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in Double-Trapezoidal Microchannels

Author(s):  
Mostafa Shojaeian ◽  
Ali Koşar

Fully developed fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of double-trapezoidal microchannels with constant wall temperature are numerically investigated in the slip flow regime. The governing equations are solved together with the appropriate boundary conditions using finite volume method. The effect of rarefaction on Poiseuille number, Po, and Nusselt number, Nu, is studied for Knudsen numbers, Kn, varying from 0 to 0.1. The effects of base angle, B, and aspect ratio, A, on the fluid flow and the heat transfer characteristics are also examined. The results reveal that the rarefaction and the cross-section shapes have prominent effects on these characteristics of double-trapezoidal microchannels. According to the results, the Poiseuille number decreases with increasing Kn, while the values of the Nusselt number completely depend on the impacts of the rarefaction and the fluid-surface interaction. Po and Nu decrease with aspect ratio for A<1, while the effect of aspect ratio on Po and Nu becomes unclear for A>1. Moreover, an increase in the base angle has a positive effect on Po and Nu, however this increasing trend is less pronounced for B > 60 ° and A < 1.67.

Author(s):  
Valaparla Ranjith Kumar ◽  
Karthik Balasubramanian ◽  
K Kiran Kumar ◽  
Nikhil Tiwari ◽  
Kanishk Bhatia

In this study, the fluid flow and heat transfer behavior in a novel circular wavy microchannel design is numerically examined and compared with a sinusoidal wavy microchannel. The numerical studies were carried out in the Reynolds number range of 100–300 under a constant heat flux wall boundary condition. The sinusoidal profile has a continuously varying curvature, which peaks at the crests and troughs, and diminishes to naught at each section at the middle of adjacent crests and troughs. On the other hand, the circular profile has a curvature constant in magnitude (and alternating in direction). Heat transfer in wavy microchannels is enhanced by vortex flow induced by centrifugal instability, which in turn depends on the curvature of fluid channel profile. The sinusoidal wavy microchannel has a curvature continuously varying in a large range results in large fluctuations of Nusselt number, while the Nusselt number in the circular channel has smaller fluctuations. Hence, heat transfer performance of the circular wavy microchannel is higher than that of the sinusoidal wavy microchannel. Velocity vectors, velocity contours, and temperature contours are presented to aid the explanation of hydrodynamic and heat transfer characteristics of fluid flow in the novel circular wavy microchannels. The Nusselt number and pressure drop along the channel are also compared with the sinusoidal wavy microchannel using a performance factor.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Zhanwei Liu ◽  
Xinyu Li ◽  
Tenglong Cong ◽  
Rui Zhang ◽  
Lingyun Zheng ◽  
...  

The prediction of flow and heat transfer characteristics of liquid sodium with CFD technology is of significant importance for the design and safety analysis of sodium-cooled fast reactor. The accuracies and uncertainties of the CFD models should be evaluated to improve the confidence of the numerical results. In this work, the uncertainties from the turbulent model, boundary conditions, and physical properties for the flow and heat transfer of liquid sodium were evaluated against the experimental data. The results of uncertainty quantization show that the maximum uncertainties of the Nusselt number and friction coefficient occurred in the transition zone from the inlet to the fully developed region in the circular tube, while they occurred near the reattachment point in the backward-facing step. Furthermore, in backward-facing step flow, the maximum uncertainty of temperature migrated from the heating wall to the geometric center of the channel, while the maximum uncertainty of velocity occurred near the vortex zone. The results of sensitivity analysis illustrate that the Nusselt number was negatively correlated with the thermal conductivity and turbulent Prandtl number, while the friction coefficient was positively correlated with the density and Von Karman constant. This work can be a reference to evaluate the accuracy of the standard k-ε model in predicting the flow and heat transfer characteristics of liquid sodium.


Author(s):  
Salaika Parvin ◽  
Nepal Chandra Roy ◽  
Litan Kumar Saha ◽  
Sadia Siddiqa

A numerical study is performed to investigate nanofluids' flow field and heat transfer characteristics between the domain bounded by a square and a wavy cylinder. The left and right walls of the cavity are at constant low temperature while its other adjacent walls are insulated. The convective phenomena take place due to the higher temperature of the inner corrugated surface. Super elliptic functions are used to transform the governing equations of the classical rectangular enclosure into a system of equations valid for concentric cylinders. The resulting equations are solved iteratively with the implicit finite difference method. Parametric results are presented in terms of streamlines, isotherms, local and average Nusselt numbers for a wide range of scaled parameters such as nanoparticles concentration, Rayleigh number, and aspect ratio. Several correlations have been deduced at the inner and outer surface of the cylinders for the average Nusselt number, which gives a good agreement when compared against the numerical results. The strength of the streamlines increases significantly due to an increase in the aspect ratio of the inner cylinder and the Rayleigh number. As the concentration of nanoparticles increases, the average Nusselt number at the internal and external cylinders becomes stronger. In addition, the average Nusselt number for the entire Rayleigh number range gets enhanced when plotted against the volume fraction of the nanofluid.


2011 ◽  
Vol 71-78 ◽  
pp. 1187-1190
Author(s):  
Yan Lai Zhang ◽  
Zhong Hao Rao ◽  
Shuang Feng Wang ◽  
Hong Zhang ◽  
Li Jun Li ◽  
...  

This experiment is performed to investigate heat transfer characteristics with the PCM microcapsule slurry in a solid phase state at a horizontal rectangular enclosure heating from below and cooling from top. Some important parameters are taken into account such as the mass concentration of the PCM, the temperature difference between heating plate and cooling plate, Nusselt number Nu, Rayleigh number Ra and the aspect ratio (width/height) of the horizontal rectangular enclosure. Experiment is done under the thermal steady condition in the PCM microcapsule slurry. Heat transfer coefficient is measured under various temperature differences in PCM mass concentrations of 10% and 20%. And relationship with Nusselt number Nu and Rayleigh number Ra is summarized to various heights H or the aspect ratio (width/height) Ar of enclosure.


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