Development of an experimental facility for investigating single-phase liquid flow in microchannels
Date
2005-06Author
Steinke, Mark
Kandlikar, Satish
Magerlein, J.
Colgan, Evan
Raisanen, Alan
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
An experimental facility is developed to investigate singlephase
liquid heat transfer and pressure drop in a variety of
microchannel geometries. The facility is capable of accurately
measuring the fluid temperatures, heater surface temperatures,
heat transfer rates, and the differential pressure in a test section.
A microchannel test section with a silicon substrate is used
to demonstrate the capability of the experimental facility. A
copper resistor is fabricated on the backside of the silicon to
provide heat input. Several other small copper resistors are
used with a four point measurement technique to acquire the
heater temperature and calculate surface temperatures. A
transparent Pyrex cover is bonded to the chip to form the
microchannel flow passages. The details of the experimental
facility are presented.
The experimental facility is intended to support the
collection of fundamental data in microchannel flows. It has
the capability of optical visualization using a traditional
microscope to see dyes and particles. It also has the capability
to perform micro-particle image velocimetry in the
microchannels to detect the flow field occurring in the
microchannel geometries. The experimental uncertainties have
been carefully evaluated in selecting the equipment used in the
experimental facility.
The thermohydraulic performance of microchannels will
be studied as a function of channel geometry, heat flux and
liquid flow rate. Some preliminary results for a test section,
with a channel width of 100 micrometers, a depth of 200
micrometers, and a fin thickness of 40 micrometers are
presented.