The effect of creep flow on two-dimensional isoflux microchannels

Abstract

Microchannel convective heat transfer and friction loss characteristics are numerically evaluated for gaseous, two-dimensional, steady state, laminar, constant wall heat flux flows. The effects of Knudsen number, accommodation coefficients, second-order slip boundary conditions, creep flow, and hydrodynamically/thermally developing flow are considered. These effects are compared through the Poiseuille number and the Nusselt number. Numerical values for the Poiseuille and Nusselt numbers are obtained using a continuum based three-dimensional, unsteady, compressible computational fluid dynamics algorithm that has been modified with slip boundary conditions. To verify the numerical results, analytic solutions of the hydrodynamically and thermally fully developed momentum and energy equations have been derived subject to both first- and second-order slip velocity and temperature jump boundary conditions. The resulting velocity and temperature profiles are then utilized to obtain the microchannel Poiseuille and Nusselt numbers as a function of Knudsen number, first- and second-order velocity slip and temperature jump coefficients, Brinkman number, and the ratio of the thermal creep velocity to the mean velocity. Excellent agreement between the numerical and analytical data is demonstrated. Second-order slip terms and creep velocity are shown to have significant effects on microchannel Poiseuille and Nusselt numbers within the slip flow regime.