Abstract
The entropy generation (S˙gen) due to fluid friction and convective heat transfer is studied en-route the microscale. The S˙gen for water-flow through a circular tube for the constant wall heat flux boundary condition is estimated. The number of tubes (N) en-route the microscale is increased by correspondingly decreasing each tube diameter, for fixed total mass flow rate and the total heat flow rate is also kept constant. There exists an optimum tube diameter (DN,opt) and a corresponding optimum natural number N (Nopt) at which, the sum-total S˙gen is minimum. Criterion for DN,opt is obtained in terms of Reynolds number and a modified Brinkman number, which shows that DN,opt depends only on the total heat flow rate. Unlike other reported studies, the fluid temperature in the denominator of the entropy generation terms is considered as local and variable. The difference in S˙gen based on reported studies and this investigation increases significantly especially towards the microscale.
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