Modeling of temperature convection in microtubes under point heating: dependence of convection velocity on tilt angle

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study of the dependence of the convection velocity of a liquid in a microtube on the angle of inclination during point heating. This study utilizes a previously prepared finite-volume mesh of a cone-shaped microtube for use within the OpenFOAM software package. A detailed analysis and description of the mathematical model and a series of computational experiments using the built-in buoyantBoussinesqPimpleFoam solver are performed. An important step in this paper is the post-processing of the results obtained from a series of computational experiments. The paper provides a detailed description of the features of the data processing carried out for direct quantitative comparison of the results obtained in the individual experiments of the series. In the conducted computational experiments, quantitative data were obtained to reveal the dependence of the liquid convection velocity in a microtube on the angle of inclination during spot heating. From the obtained results, a significant influence of the inclination angle on the convection velocity was revealed, which can serve as a solution for the problems of optimization of mixing processes in microscale systems in the future.