Heat Transfer for Water Flow in Triangular Silicon Microchannels

Abstract

This study investigated the behavior of pressure drops and heat transfer coefficients for four sets of triangular microchannels. Results of this study indicated that for Reynolds numbers less than 100, the Nusselt number tends to be nearly linearly increasing as the Reynolds number increases. The product of the friction factor and the Reynolds number (fRe) is slightly lower than those predicated by the conventional theory. Besides, high temperature gradient exists in the regions between the inlet and the exit of the flow channel. Furthermore, the difference between the values for Nu of those obtained from the empirical correlation for triangular microchannel and those from the experimental measurements was found to be within 15%.

Keywords

• microchannels
• thermo-fluidic behavior
• experimental and numerical analyses