Numerical Prediction of Flow and Heat Transfer Rates in Metal Based Microchannels Using Lattice Boltzmann Method

Abstract

Metal-based Microchannel Heat Exchangers (MHEs) are of current interest due to the combination of high heat transfer performance and improved mechanical integrity. In the present work, a simple two-dimensional thermal lattice Boltzmann model without viscous heat dissipation and pressure compressible work has been developed to simulate the heat transfer phenomenon in Cu- and Al-based micro-channels. A 2D fluid-solid conjugate heat transfer problem is solved using LBM and Fluent. For the Cu specimen, the height of the channel considered was 204 μm and the top and bottom wall thickness was taken to be same as the channel height. The LBM results were compared with 3D and 2D fluent models. The study also compares the numerically computed velocity profile with the analytical results and compares the Nusselt number values predicted by LBM and Fluent with the experimental data. Owing to the simplicity of the thermal LB model, promising results were obtained from the LBM predictions.