Heat Transfer Investigation of Air Flow in Microtubes—Part I: Effects of Heat Loss, Viscous Heating, and Axial Conduction

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting-Yu Lin ◽  
Satish G. Kandlikar

Experiments were conducted to investigate local heat transfer coefficients and flow characteristics of air flow in a 962 μm inner diameter stainless steel microtube (minichannel). The effects of heat loss, axial heat conduction and viscous heating were systematically analyzed. Heat losses during the experiments with gas flow in small diameter tubes vary considerably along the flow length, causing the uncertainties to be very large in the downstream region. Axial heat conduction was found to have a significant effect on heat transfer at low Re. Viscous heating was negligible at low Re, but the effect was found to be significant at higher Re. After accounting for varying heat losses, viscous heating and axial conduction, Nu was found to agree very well with the predictions from conventional heat transfer correlations both in laminar and turbulent flow regions. No early transition to turbulent flow was found in the present study.

2011 ◽  
Vol 134 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting-Yu Lin ◽  
Satish G. Kandlikar

A model is developed to analyze the effect of axial conduction on heat transfer during single-phase flow in microchannels. The axial heat conduction in the wall introduces heat flow toward the inlet section resulting in an increase in the local fluid temperature and a corresponding increase in the wall temperature. Neglecting this effect while reducing the experimental data results in a lower value of the experimental Nusselt number. The model derived in this work takes into account this effect and offers a parameter to estimate the effect introduced by the axial heat conduction effect in the wall.


Author(s):  
B. Mathew ◽  
H. Hegab

In this paper the effect of axial heat conduction on the thermal performance of a microchannel heat exchanger with non-adiabatic end walls is studied. The two ends of the wall separating the coolant are assumed to be subjected to boundary condition of the first kind. As the end walls are not insulated heat transfer between the microchannel heat exchanger and its surroundings occur. Analytical equations have been formulated for predicting the axial temperature of the coolants and the wall as well as for determining the effectiveness of both fluids. The effectiveness of the fluids has been found to depend on the NTU, axial heat conduction parameter and end wall temperatures. The heat transfer through the end walls have been expressed in nondimensional terms. The nondimensional heat transfer from both ends of the wall also depends on the axial heat conduction parameter and temperature gradient at the end walls. A new parameter, performance factor, has been proposed for comparing the variation in effectiveness due to axial heat conduction coupled with heat transfer with the effectiveness without axial heat conduction. The effectiveness of both the hot and cold fluid for several cases of end wall temperatures and axial heat conduction parameter are analyzed in this paper for better understanding of heat transfer dynamics of microchannel heat exchangers.


2001 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 356-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas G. Hadjiconstantinou ◽  
Olga Simek

We investigate the constant-wall-temperature convective heat-transfer characteristics of a model gaseous flow in two-dimensional micro and nano-channels under hydrodynamically and thermally fully developed conditions. Our investigation covers both the slip-flow regime 0⩽Kn⩽0.1, and most of the transition regime 0.1<Kn⩽10, where Kn, the Knudsen number, is defined as the ratio between the molecular mean free path and the channel height. We use slip-flow theory in the presence of axial heat conduction to calculate the Nusselt number in the range 0⩽Kn⩽0.2, and a stochastic molecular simulation technique known as the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) to calculate the Nusselt number in the range 0.02<Kn<2. Inclusion of the effects of axial heat conduction in the continuum model is necessary since small-scale internal flows are typically characterized by finite Peclet numbers. Our results show that the slip-flow prediction is in good agreement with the DSMC results for Kn⩽0.1, but also remains a good approximation beyond its expected range of applicability. We also show that the Nusselt number decreases monotonically with increasing Knudsen number in the fully accommodating case, both in the slip-flow and transition regimes. In the slip-flow regime, axial heat conduction is found to increase the Nusselt number; this effect is largest at Kn=0 and is of the order of 10 percent. Qualitatively similar results are obtained for slip-flow heat transfer in circular tubes.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting-Yu Lin ◽  
Satish G. Kandlikar

In this paper, the scale effects are specifically addressed by conducting experiments with air flow in different microtubes. Three stainless steel tubes of 962, 308, and 83 μm inner diameter (ID) are investigated for friction factor, and the first two are investigated for heat transfer. Viscous heating effects are studied in the laminar as well as turbulent flow regimes by varying the air flow rate. The axial conduction effects in microtubes are experimentally explored for the first time by comparing the heat transfer in SS304 tube with a 910 μm ID/2005 μm outer diameter nickel tube specifically fabricated using an electrodeposition technique. After carefully accounting for the variable heat losses along the tube length, it is seen that the viscous heating and the axial conduction effects become more important at microscale and the present models are able to predict these effects accurately. It is concluded that neglecting these effects is the main source of discrepancies in the data reported in the earlier literature.


2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Simek ◽  
Nicolas G. Hadjiconstantinou

Abstract We present an investigation of slip-flow constant-wall-temperature convective heat transfer in circular tubes under hydrodynamically and thermally fully developed conditions. Our analysis includes the contribution of axial heat conduction (finite Peclet number) which is important in small scale flows, and has not been included in previous investigations of slip-flow heat transfer. The Nusselt number is found to decrease with increasing Knudsen number for all Peclet numbers in the fully accommodating case, as expected. The effect of axial heat conduction is found to be most important at Kn = 0, and results in an increase in the Nusselt number of the order of 15%; as Kn increases, the effect of axial heat conduction decreases.


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