scholarly journals Effects of Channel Wall Twisting on the Mixing in a T-Shaped Micro-Channel

Micromachines ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Jin Kang

A new design scheme is proposed for twisting the walls of a microchannel, and its performance is demonstrated numerically. The numerical study was carried out for a T-shaped microchannel with twist angles in the range of 0 to 34π. The Reynolds number range was 0.15 to 6. The T-shaped microchannel consists of two inlet branches and an outlet branch. The mixing performance was analyzed in terms of the degree of mixing and relative mixing cost. All numerical results show that the twisting scheme is an effective way to enhance the mixing in a T-shaped microchannel. The mixing enhancement is realized by the swirling of two fluids in the cross section and is more prominent as the Reynolds number decreases. The twist angle was optimized to maximize the degree of mixing (DOM), which increases with the length of the outlet branch. The twist angle was also optimized in terms of the relative mixing cost (MC). The two optimum twisting angles are generally not coincident. The optimum twist angle shows a dependence on the length of the outlet branch but it is not affected much by the Reynolds number.


Author(s):  
Dong Jin Kang

A new design scheme is proposed for twisting the walls of a microchannel, and its performance is demonstrated numerically. The numerical study was carried out for a T-shaped microchannel with twist angles in the range of 0 to 34π. The Reynolds number range was 0.15 to 6. The T-shaped microchannel consists of two inlet branches and an outlet branch. The mixing performance was analyzed in terms of the degree of mixing and relative mixing cost. All numerical results show that the twisting scheme is an effective way to enhance the mixing in a T-shaped microchannel. The mixing enhancement is realized by the swirling of two fluids in the cross section and is more prominent as the Reynolds number decreases. The twist angle was optimized to maximize the DOM, which increases with the length of the outlet branch. The twist angle was also optimized in terms of the relative mixing. The two optimum twisting angles are generally not coincident. The optimum twist angle shows a dependence on the length of the outlet branch but it is not affected much by the Reynolds number.



Micromachines ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 685
Author(s):  
Makhsuda Juraeva ◽  
Dong Jin Kang

A new cross-channel split-and-recombine (CC-SAR) micro-mixer was proposed, and its performance was demonstrated numerically. A numerical study was carried out over a wide range of volume flow rates from 3.1 μL/min to 826.8 μL/min. The corresponding Reynolds number ranges from 0.3 to 80. The present micro-mixer consists of four mixing units. Each mixing unit is constructed by combining one split-and-recombine (SAR) unit with a mixing cell. The mixing performance was analyzed in terms of the degree of mixing and relative mixing cost. All numerical results show that the present micro-mixer performs better than other micro-mixers based on SARs over a wide range of volume flow rate. The mixing enhancement is realized by a particular motion of vortex flow: the Dean vortex in the circular sub-channel and another vortex inside the mixing cell. The two vortex flows are generated on the different planes perpendicular to each other. They cause the two fluids to change their relative position as the fluids flow into the circular sub-channel of the SAR, eventually promoting violent mixing. High vorticity in the mixing cell elongates the flow interface between two fluids, and promotes mixing in the flow regime of molecular diffusion dominance.



Author(s):  
C. Nonino ◽  
S. Savino ◽  
S. Del Giudice

The results of a comparative numerical study aimed at assessing the mixing performance of planar zig-zag, curvilinear and square-wave microchannels of square cross-section is presented in the paper. To evaluate the mixing enhancement characteristics of each geometry, suitable mixing indices are computed at different axial locations of a single repetitive module of each microchannel when this is fed with two equal streams of fluid having the same thermophysical properties, but different solute concentrations. To separate the effects of the geometry from those of molecular diffusion, entrance flow and channel length, the mixing by pure diffusion in straight microchannels of the same length is also evaluated for comparison. Reynolds numbers in the range from 5 to 150 are considered, while the Pe´clet number is held constant and equal to 2500. All the numerical simulations are carried out using an in-house finite element code for the solution of all model equations.



2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oktay Çiçek ◽  
A. Cihat Baytaş

Purpose The purpose of this study is to numerically investigate heat transfer and entropy generation between airframe and cabin-cargo departments in an aircraft. The conjugate forced convection and entropy generation in a cylindrical cavity within air channel partly filled with porous insulation material as simplified geometry for airframe and cabin-cargo departments are considered under local thermal non-equilibrium condition. Design/methodology/approach The non-dimensional governing equations for fluid and porous media discretized by finite volume method are solved using the SIMPLE algorithm with pressure and velocity correction. Findings The effects of the following parameters on the problem are investigated; Reynolds number, Darcy number, the size of inlet and exit cross-section, thermal conductivity ratio for solid and fluid phases, angle between the vertical symmetry axis and the end of channel wall exit and the gap between adiabatic channel wall and horizontal adiabatic wall separating cabin and cargo sections. Originality/value This paper can provide a basic perspective and framework for thermal design between the fuselage and cabin-cargo sections. The minimum total entropy generation number is calculated for various Reynolds numbers and thermal conductivity ratios. It is observed that the channel wall temperature increases for high Reynolds number, low Darcy number, narrower exit cross-section and wider the gap between channel wall and horizontal.



Author(s):  
Shakhawat Hossain ◽  
Mubashshir Ahmad Ansari ◽  
Afzal Husain ◽  
Kwang-Yong Kim

In this study, a parametric investigation on mixing of two fluids in a modified Tesla microchannel, has been preformed. Modified Tesla micromixer applies both flow separation and vortices string principles to enhance the mixing. The fluid stream splits into two sub-streams and one of them mixes with the other again at the exit of the Tesla unit. Analyses of mixing and flow field have been carried out for a wide range of Reynolds number from 0.05 to 40. Mixing performance and pressure drop characteristics with two geometrical parameters, i.e, ratio of the diffuser gap to channel width (h/w) and ratio of the curved gap to the channel width (s/w), have been analyzed at six different Reynolds numbers. The vortical structure of the flow has been analyzed to explain mixing performance. The sensitivity analysis reveals that mixing is more sensitive s/w, than the h/w.



2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hery Sonawan ◽  
Evi Sofia ◽  
Arief Ramadhan

PurposeThe paper aims to apply Buckingham Pi dimensional analysis method for assessing direct evaporative cooler performance with a cooling pad made of banana midrib and ramie fiber. The saturation efficiency acted as the indicator performance of the evaporative cooler.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes an experimental study of the direct evaporative cooler with a cooling pad made of banana midrib and rami fiber. There were six parameters in the experiment: absorbed water as a dependent variable was affected by independent parameters such as air velocity and temperature, cooling pad cross-section area and thickness. Based on these variables, we arranged three dimensionless numbers and their correlation.FindingsThe paper provides three calculated dimensionless numbers plotted on a curve with a specific correlation. The curve trends for 30 mm and 50 mm pad thickness were almost similar. The range of Reynolds number for 10 mm pad was narrower than other pad thicknesses. The thicker the cooling pad, the more extensive was the calculated Reynolds number range. A new curve exhibited the relationship between the evaporation rate with the μA/t number. The broader cooling pad cross-section, the thinner pad thickness, and the lower pad temperature were factors that increased the evaporation rate, even though the increase was less significant.Originality/valueA new material in cooling pad from banana midrib fiber was tested and compared to ramie fiber and conventional cooling pad.



Micromachines ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1122
Author(s):  
Chih-Yang Wu ◽  
Bing-Hao Lai

To enhance fluid mixing, a new approach for inlet flow modification by adding vortex-inducing obstacles (VIOs) in the inlet channels of a T-shaped micromixer is proposed and investigated in this work. We use a commercial computational fluid dynamics code to calculate the pressure and the velocity vectors and, to reduce the numerical diffusion in high-Peclet-number flows, we employ the particle-tracking simulation with an approximation diffusion model to calculate the concentration distribution in the micromixers. The effects of geometric parameters, including the distance between the obstacles and the angle of attack of the obstacles, on the mixing performance of micromixers are studied. From the results, we can observe the following trends: (i) the stretched contact surface between different fluids caused by antisymmetric VIOs happens for the cases with the Reynolds number (Re) greater than or equal to 27 and the enhancement of mixing increases with the increase of Reynolds number gradually, and (ii) the onset of the engulfment flow happens at Re≈125 in the T-shaped mixer with symmetric VIOs or at Re≈140 in the standard planar T-shaped mixer and results in a sudden increase of the degree of mixing. The results indicate that the early initiation of transversal convection by either symmetric or antisymmetric VIOs can enhance fluid mixing at a relatively lower Re.



Micromachines ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 844 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wasim Raza ◽  
Kwang-Yong Kim

The present work proposes a planar micromixer design comprising hybrid mixing modules of split-and-recombine units and curved channels with radial baffles. The mixing performance was evaluated numerically by solving the continuity and momentum equations along with the advection-diffusion equation in a Reynolds number range of 0.1–80. The variance of the concentration of the mixed species was considered to quantify the mixing index. The micromixer showed far better mixing performance over whole Reynolds number range than an earlier split-and-recombine micromixer. The mixer achieved mixing indices greater than 90% at Re ≥ 20 and a mixing index of 99.8% at Re = 80. The response of the mixing quality to the change of three geometrical parameters was also studied. A mixing index over 80% was achieved within 63% of the full length at Re = 20.



Author(s):  
Sunil Patil ◽  
Teddy Sedalor ◽  
Danesh Tafti ◽  
Srinath Ekkad ◽  
Yong Kim ◽  
...  

Modern dry low emissions (DLE) combustors are characterized by highly swirling and expanding flows that makes the convective heat load on the gas side difficult to predict and estimate. A coupled experimental–numerical study of swirling flow inside a DLE annular combustor model is used to determine the distribution of heat transfer on the liner walls. Three different Reynolds numbers are investigated in the range of 210,000–840,000 with a characteristic swirl number of 0.98. The maximum heat transfer coefficient enhancement ratio decreased from 6 to 3.6 as the flow Reynolds number increased from 210,000 to 840,000. This is attributed to a reduction in the normalized turbulent kinetic energy in the impinging shear layer, which is strongly dependent on the swirl number that remains constant at 0.98 for the Reynolds number range investigated. The location of peak heat transfer did not change with the increase in Reynolds number since the flow structures in the combustors did not change with Reynolds number. Results also showed that the heat transfer distributions in the annulus have slightly different characteristics for the concave and convex walls. A modified swirl number accounting for the step expansion ratio is defined to facilitate comparison between the heat transfer characteristics in the annular combustor with previous work in a can combustor. A higher modified swirl number in the annular combustor resulted in higher heat transfer augmentation and a slower decay with Reynolds number.



2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Rao ◽  
Yamin Xu ◽  
Chaoyi Wan

A numerical study was conducted to investigate the effects of dimple depth on the flow and heat transfer characteristics in a pin fin-dimple channel, where dimples are located spanwisely between the pin fins. The study aimed at promoting the understanding of the underlying convective heat transfer mechanisms in the pin fin-dimple channels and improving the cooling design for the gas turbine components. The flow structure, friction factor, and heat transfer performance of the pin fin-dimple channels with various dimple depths have been obtained and compared with each other for the Reynolds number range of 8200–80,800. The study showed that, compared to the pin fin channel, the pin fin-dimple channels have further improved convective heat transfer performance, and the pin fin-dimple channel with deeper dimples shows relatively higher Nusselt number values. The study still showed a dimple depth-dependent flow friction performance for the pin fin-dimple channels compared to the pin fin channel, and the pin fin-dimple channel with shallower dimples shows relatively lower friction factors over the studied Reynolds number range. Furthermore, the computations showed the detailed characteristics in the distribution of the velocity and turbulence level in the flow, which revealed the underlying mechanisms for the heat transfer enhancement and flow friction reduction phenomenon in the pin fin-dimple channels.



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