Heat Transfer Characteristics of Gaseous Flows in Micro-Channels With Negative Heat Flux

Abstract

Two-dimensional compressible momentum and energy equations are solved to obtain the heat transfer characteristics of gaseous flows in micro-channels with CHF (constant heat flux) whose value is negative. The combined effect of viscous dissipation and compressibility is also investigated. The numerical methodology is based on the Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method. The computations are performed for channels with constant heat flux with range from −104 to −102 Wm−2. The channel height ranges from 10 to 100 μm and the aspect ratio of the channel height and length is 200. The stagnation pressure varies from 120 to 500 kPa. The outlet pressure is fixed at the atmosphere. The wall and bulk temperatures in micro-channels are compared with those of the case of positive heat flux and also compared with those of the incompressible flow in a conventional sized channel. In the case of negative heat flux, temperature profiles normalized by heat flux have different trends in the case of positive heat flux, when flow is fast. A gas temperature falls down due to the energy conversion. A correlation for the prediction of the wall temperature of the gaseous flow in the micro-channel is proposed.