scholarly journals Experimental and Numerical Investigations on the Flow Characteristics within Hydrodynamic Entrance Regions in Microchannels

Micromachines ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haiwang Li ◽  
Binghuan Huang ◽  
Min Wu

Flow characteristics within entrance regions in microchannels are important due to their effect on heat and mass transfer. However, relevant research is limited and some conclusions are controversial. In order to reveal flow characteristics within entrance regions and to provide empiric correlation estimating hydrodynamic entrance length, experimental and numerical investigations were conducted in microchannels with square cross-sections. The inlet configuration was elaborately designed in a more common pattern for microdevices to diminish errors caused by separation flow near the inlet and fabrication faults so that conclusions which were more applicable to microchannels could be drawn. Three different microchannels with hydraulic diameters of 100 μm, 150 μm, and 200 μm were investigated with Reynolds (Re) number ranging from 0.5 to 50. For the experiment, deionized water was chosen as the working fluid and microscopic particle image velocimetry (micro-PIV) was adopted to record and analyze velocity profiles. For numerical simulation, the test-sections were modeled and incompressible laminar Navier–Stokes equations were solved with commercial software. Strong agreement was achieved between the experimental data and the simulated data. According to the results of both the experiments and the simulations, new correlations were proposed to estimate entrance length. Re numbers ranging from 12.5 to 15 was considered as the transition region where the relationship between entrance length and Re number converted. For the microchannels and the Reynolds number range investigated compared with correlations for conventional channels, noticeable deviation was observed for lower Re numbers (Re < 12.5) and strong agreement was found for higher Re numbers (Re > 15).

2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tariq Ahmad ◽  
Ibrahim Hassan

The study of the entrance region of microchannels and microdevices is limited, yet important, since the effect on the flow field and heat transfer mechanisms is significant. An experimental study has been carried out to explore the laminar hydrodynamic development length in the entrance region of adiabatic square microchannels. Flow field measurements are acquired through the use of microparticle image velocimetry (micro-PIV), a nonintrusive particle tracking and flow observation technique. With the application of micro-PIV, entrance length flow field data are obtained for three different microchannel hydraulic diameters of 500 μm, 200 μm, and 100 μm, all of which have cross-sectional aspect ratios of 1. The working fluid is distilled water, and velocity profile data are acquired over a laminar Reynolds number range from 0.5 to 200. The test-sections were designed as to provide a sharp-edged microchannel inlet from a very large reservoir at least 100 times wider and higher than the microchannel hydraulic diameter. Also, all microchannels have a length-to-diameter ratio of at least 100 to assure fully developed flow at the channel exit. The micro-PIV procedure is validated in the fully developed region with comparison to Navier–Stokes momentum equations. Good agreement was found with comparison to conventional entrance length correlations for ducts or parallel plates, depending on the Reynolds range, and minimal influence of dimensional scaling between the investigated microchannels was observed. New entrance length correlations are proposed, which account for both creeping and high laminar Reynolds number flows. These correlations are unique in predicting the entrance length in microchannels and will aid in the design of future microfluidic devices.


Author(s):  
Tariq Ahmad ◽  
Ibrahim Hassan ◽  
Roland Muwanga

An experimental study has been carried out to explore the laminar hydrodynamic development length in the entrance region of adiabatic square microchannels. Flow field measurements are acquired through the use of micro-Particle Image Velocimetry (micro-PIV), a non-intrusive particle tracking and flow observation technique. With the application of micro-PIV, entrance length flow field data is obtained for two different microchannel hydraulic diameters of 500 μm and 100 μm, both of which have cross-sectional aspect ratios of one. The working fluid is distilled water, and velocity profile data is acquired over a laminar Reynolds number range from 0 to 200. The test sections were designed as to provide a sharpedged microchannel inlet from an infinitely sized reservoir, at least 100 times wider and higher than the microchannel hydraulic diameter. Also, all microchannels have a length-to-diameter ratio of at least 100, to assure fully developed flow at the channel exit. The micro-PIV procedure is validated in the fully developed region with comparison to Navier-Stokes momentum equations. Good agreement was found with comparison to conventional entrance length correlations for ducts, and no influence of scaling was observed.


Micromachines ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Haiwang Li ◽  
Yujia Li ◽  
Binghuan Huang ◽  
Tiantong Xu

We conducted systematic numerical investigations of the flow characteristics within the entrance region of rectangular microchannels. The effects of the geometrical aspect ratio and roughness on entrance lengths were analyzed. The incompressible laminar Navier–Stokes equations were solved using finite volume method (FVM). In the simulation, hydraulic diameters ( D h ) ranging from 50 to 200 µm were studied, and aspect ratios of 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, and 2 were considered as well. The working fluid was set as water, and the Reynolds number ranged from 0.5 to 100. The results showed a good agreement with the conducted experiment. Correlations are proposed to predict the entrance lengths of microchannels with respect to different aspect ratios. Compared with other correlations, these new correlations are more reliable because a more practical inlet condition was considered in our investigations. Instead of considering the influence of the width and height of the microchannels, in our investigation we proved that the critical role is played by the aspect ratio, representing the combination of the aforementioned parameters. Furthermore, the existence of rough elements obviously shortens the entrance region, and this effect became more pronounced with increasing relative roughness and Reynolds number. A similar effect could be seen by shortening the roughness spacing. An asymmetric distribution of rough elements decreased the entrance length compared with a symmetric distribution, which can be extrapolated to other irregularly distributed forms.


Author(s):  
Keizo Watanabe ◽  
Satoshi Ogata ◽  
Munehiko Hirao

Pressure drops and velocity profiles for micro tubes were investigated for the laminar flow of distilled water and dilute polymer solutions. The test micro tubes were fused silica capillaries with diameters in the range of 50.2–251.8 μm, and a value of l/d (length/diameter) of about 340. By performing pressure drop measurements, it is shown that the experimental data agree well with the Hagen-Poiseuille equation in the case of Newtonian fluids. On the other hand, the flow rate of dilute polymer solutions increases relative to that of distilled water in the low Reynolds number range. The increased flow rate ratio is a maximum of about 15% in the case of d = 251.8 μm. For the result of the micro PIV measurement, however, there are few differences between the velocity profile of distilled water and the Peo 5 ppm solution.


2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ho Joon Park ◽  
Sang Young Son ◽  
Mun Cheol Choi ◽  
Geunbae Lim ◽  
In-Seob Song ◽  
...  

Abstract This paper investigated experimentally effects of the temperature-dependent property on the laminar flow characteristics in the micro-channel, where water was used as a working fluid. A rectangular straight micro-channel was fabricated with the dimension of 57 μm (H) × 200 μm (W) × 48050 μm (L), in which the resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) were integrated to measure precise temperatures of the fluid directly on the inside-surface of the channel wall. A micro-heater was also installed at the outlet of the channel to generate the heat flux. We measured pressure drop by increasing mass flow rate and the applied heating power. At the same time, micro-Particle Image Velocimetry (micro-PIV) [1] measured the detailed velocity fields along the microchannel, where the wall temperature varied. Based on the pressure drop and Micro-PIV measurement, it was determined that the variation of the fluid property along the microchannel has an effect significantly on flow resistance but not considerably on the velocity profile. Also, it was observed that flow resistance and velocity field shows a good agreement with those estimated in the macro laminar theory under our experimental conditions.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 7451-7456
Author(s):  
Hyeon-Seok Seo ◽  
Jin-Hyo Boo ◽  
Youn-Jea Kim

This study numerically investigated the flow characteristics in a rectangular enclosure filled with oil-based ferrofluid (EFH-1, Ferrotec.) under the influence of external magnetic fields. The rectangular enclosure contained obstacles with different shapes, such as a rectangle and a triangle mounted on the top and bottom wall surfaces. In order to generate external magnetic fields, a permanent magnet was located in the lower part of the rectangular enclosure, and its direction was selected to be either horizontal or vertical. Our results showed that the ferrofluid flow fields were affected by the applied external magnetic field direction and eddy flow phenomena in the working fluid were generated in the vicinity of high magnetic flux density distributions, such as at the edge of the permanent magnet. It was also confirmed that the magnetophoretic force distributions in the analysis model played a significant role in the development of the ferrofluid flow fields.


Author(s):  
K. M. Akyuzlu ◽  
Y. Pavri ◽  
A. Antoniou

A two-dimensional, mathematical model is adopted to investigate the development of buoyancy driven circulation patterns and temperature contours inside a rectangular enclosure filled with a compressible fluid (Pr=1.0). One of the vertical walls of the enclosure is kept at a higher temperature then the opposing vertical wall. The top and the bottom of the enclosure are assumed insulated. The physics based mathematical model for this problem consists of conservation of mass, momentum (two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations) and energy equations for the enclosed fluid subjected to appropriate boundary conditions. The working fluid is assumed to be compressible through a simple ideal gas relation. The governing equations are discretized using second order accurate central differencing for spatial derivatives and first order forward finite differencing for time derivatives where the computation domain is represented by a uniform orthogonal mesh. The resulting nonlinear equations are then linearized using Newton’s linearization method. The set of algebraic equations that result from this process are then put into a matrix form and solved using a Coupled Modified Strongly Implicit Procedure (CMSIP) for the unknowns (primitive variables) of the problem. A numerical experiment is carried out for a benchmark case (driven cavity flow) to verify the accuracy of the proposed solution procedure. Numerical experiments are then carried out using the proposed compressible flow model to simulate the development of the buoyancy driven circulation patterns for Rayleigh numbers between 103 and 105. Finally, an attempt is made to determine the effect of compressibility of the working fluid by comparing the results of the proposed model to that of models that use incompressible flow assumptions together with Boussinesq approximation.


Author(s):  
Yo Han Jung ◽  
Young Uk Min ◽  
Jin Young Kim

This paper presents a numerical investigation of the effect of tip clearance on the suction performance and flow characteristics at different flow rates in a vertical mixed-flow pump. Numerical analyses were carried out by solving three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. Steady computations were performed for three different tip clearances under noncavitating and cavitating conditions at design and off-design conditions. The pump performance test was performed for the mixed-flow pump and numerical results were validated by comparing the experimental data for a system characterized by the original tip clearance. It was shown that for large tip clearance, the head breakdown occurred earlier at the design and high flow rates. However, the head breakdown was quite delayed at low flow rate. This resulted from the cavitation structure caused by the tip leakage flow at different flow rates.


Author(s):  
S C M Yu ◽  
J B Zhao

Flow characteristics in straight tubes with an asymmetric bulge have been investigated using particle image velocimetry (PIV) over a range of Reynolds numbers from 600 to 1200 and at a Womersley number of 22. A mixture of glycerine and water (approximately 40:60 by volume) was used as the working fluid. The study was carried out because of their relevance in some aspects of physiological flows, such as arterial flow through a sidewall aneurysm. Results for both steady and pulsatile flow conditions were obtained. It was found that at a steady flow condition, a weak recirculating vortex formed inside the bulge. The recirculation became stronger at higher Reynolds numbers but weaker at larger bulge sizes. The centre of the vortex was located close to the distal neck. At pulsatile flow conditions, the vortex appeared and disappeared at different phases of the cycle, and the sequence was only punctuated by strong forward flow behaviour (near the peak flow condition). In particular, strong flow interactions between the parent tube and the bulge were observed during the deceleration phase. Stents and springs were used to dampen the flow movement inside the bulge. It was found that the recirculation vortex could be eliminated completely in steady flow conditions using both devices. However, under pulsatile flow conditions, flow velocities inside the bulge could not be suppressed completely by both devices, but could be reduced by more than 80 per cent.


Author(s):  
Nasim Chitsaz ◽  
Kamran Siddiqui ◽  
Romeo Marian ◽  
Javaan S. Chahl

Abstract In this study, computational fluid dynamics analysis was performed on a three-dimensional model of a Libellulidae wing to determine aerodynamic performance in gliding flight. The wing is comprised of various corrugated features alongside the spanwise and chordwise directions, as well as twist. The detailed features of real 3D dragonfly wing models, including all the corrugations through both span and chord, have not been considered in the past for a detailed aerodynamic analysis. The simulations were conducted by solving the Navier-Stokes equations to demonstrate gliding performance over a range of angles of attack at low Reynolds numbers. The numerical model was validated against experimental data obtained from a fabricated corrugated wing model using particle image velocimetry. The numerical results demonstrate that bio-inspired wings with corrugations compared to flat profile wings generate more lift with lower drag, trapping the vortices in the valleys of wing corrugation leading to delayed flow separation and delayed stall. The experimental and numerical results demonstrate that the methodology presented in this study can be used to measure bio-inspired 3D wing flow characteristics, including the influence of complex corrugations on aerodynamic performance. These findings contribute to the advancement of knowledge required for designing an optimized bioinspired micro air vehicle.


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