Analysis of Integral Transform Solutions for Thermally Developing Flow in Microchannels With Isothermal Wall

Abstract

There is a growing interest for applications of heat and mass transfer in microchannels. Consequently, several numerical and experimental studies related to transport phenomena in microchannels have been carried-out. The flow problem in microchannels is different from the macro-scale problems due to rarefaction effects, surface roughness, viscous dissipation heating as well as other effects. As a result, a number of studies have been proposed for investigating the micro-flow problem and how each of these phenomena affect heat and mass transfer characteristics. Naturally, there is particular focus on how the observed micro-scale phenomena differ from the traditionally known macro-scale effects. In the realm of simulation studies for heat transfer in micro-sized channels, this paper proposes a comparison between hybrid solution strategies for solving steady heat transfer problems within microchannels. The Generalized Integral Transform Technique (GITT) is employed as the main solution methodology; however, different solution approaches are investigated in order to determine advantages and drawbacks of each alternative. The presented results can serve as guidance for choosing an optimum solution methodology for thermally developing heat transfer in microchannels using GITT implementations.