Analysis of temperature characteristics of ink fluid based on power law model in microchannel

Abstract

In the offset press, ink flows in the microchannel made of two rotating rollers that are in the state of squeezing and contacting. The ink flow characteristics are not only influenced by the viscous dissipation effect, but also change with the heat transfer. First, by summarizing the common viscosity–shear rate models of non-Newtonian fluid, the power law model was chosen for describing offset ink through rheometer measuring. Combined with the experimental data, the viscosity–temperature relationship of the offset ink was described by the Arrhenius’s law. Then, the temperature characteristics of the offset ink fluid in the microchannel were studied using the fluid simulation software FLUENT. The ink fluid temperature field model considering viscous dissipation and heat transfer was established, and the temperature distributions of the ink fluid inside the microchannel and at the exit and entrance were obtained. The influence of the feature size on the ink temperature was also researched. Finally, the ink temperature and flow characteristics were compared with that under the condition without heat transfer. We got the influence of feature size and heat transfer on the ink temperature characteristics. As the feature size is smaller, the ink temperature increase from the microchannel entrance to the exit, increases first and then decreases, and keeps invariant at last. The heat transfer makes the viscous dissipation weaken relatively and then the ink temperature decreases. In a word, the heat transfer enhances as the feature size decreases. The results provide reference for improving the printing quality of offset press.