Title: Numerical research on entrance effect on internal flow characteristics in micro-scale

Authors: Tiantian Zhang, Li Jia, Xing Li

Addresses: School of Mechanical and Electronic Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China. ' School of Mechanical and Electronic Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China. ' School of Mechanical and Electronic Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China

Abstract: Entrance effect, which is a key factor that affects the flow and heat transfer characteristics in microchannels, has been studied in details numerically. Some strange phenomena were found, such as the maximum velocity occurs not in the channel core but near the walls due to the surface effect, et al. The effects of Reynolds number, hydrodynamic diameter and height-to-width ratio on hydrodynamic entry length are analysed. The correlation of entrance length, which is useful for designing and optimising the microchannel heat sinks and other microfluidic devices, is established.

Keywords: microchannels; numerical simulation; boundary layer; entrance effect; hydrodynamic entry length; internal flow; flow characteristics; heat transfer; heat sinks; microfluidic devices.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2009.023350

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2009 Vol.9 No.2, pp.67 - 76

Published online: 19 Feb 2009 *

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