Evaluation method for heat transfer coefficient of a contact interface across a microscale thin liquid polymer film

Abstract

The research presented here evaluates the heat transfer coefficient of the contact interface of a thin liquid polymer film between a pair of columnar aluminum bodies with an initial temperature difference of approximately 160 K. We measured the unsteady temperature changes inside the columns. The heat transfer test was performed with three types of liquid polymers: squalane, oleic acid, and silicone oil. The heat transfer coefficient of the polymer films as a fitting parameter was obtained by ensuring the numerically computed time evolution of the columns’ temperature corresponded with the experimentally measured data. The interfacial heat transfer coefficients of the thin polymer films (mean thickness: 60 μm) for all three polymers used were 1.75 kW/m2·K, 2.75 kW/m2·K, and 4.10 kW/m2·K. The present estimating method for determining interfacial heat transfer coefficients was suitable for a material-polymer film-material contact model. The time evolution of the temperature at the contact surfaces was also effectively evaluated using the numerical simulation.