Single-phase liquid heat transfer in microchannels
Abstract
The development of advanced microchannel heat
exchangers and microfluidic devices is dependent upon the
understanding of the fundamental heat transfer processes that
occur in these systems. Several researchers have reported
significant deviation from the classical theory used in
macroscale applications, while others have reported general
agreement, especially in the laminar region. This fundamental
question needs to be addressed in order to generate a set of
design equations to predict the heat transfer performance of
microchannel flow devices.
A database is generated from the available literature to
critically evaluate the reported experimental data. An in-depth
comparison of previous experimental data is performed to
identify the discrepancies in the reported literature. It is
concluded that the classical theory is applicable to
microchannel and minichannel flows. The literature reporting
discrepancies do not account for developing flows, fin
efficiency, erros in channel geometry measurements and
experimental uncertainties. It is further concluded that if all
these factors are accounted for, the available data have good
general agreement with macroscale theories. A similar
approach is presented for pressure drop in microchannels in an
accompanying conference paper, Steinke and Kandlikar (2005).
Collections
The following license files are associated with this item: