Numerical simulation of heat and flow of liquid through minichannels

Abstract

In this paper the heat transfer and flow in minichannels was investigated by using CFD methods.The numerical simulation results show that the equivalent diameter has little influence on resistance coefficient in the laminar region. In the turbulent flow region, the resistance coefficient decreases with the increasing of the equivalent diameter. In all computation region, the friction factors increases with increasing of the aspect ratio, and the friction factors decreases obviously with increasing of Reynolds number. The numerical simulation results show that the equivalent diameter has little influence on heat transfer Nusselt number in laminar flow region. In turbulent region, the Nusselt numbers are larger than those in macro channels. The Nusselt numbers increase with decreasing of equivalent diameter and the aspect ratio for a given Reynolds number. Copyright © 2006 by ASME.