Laminar flow of micropolar fluid in rectangular microchannels

Compared with the classic flow on macroscale, flows in microchannels have some new phenomena such as the friction increase and the flow rate reduction. Papautsky and co-workers explained these phenomena by using a micropolar fluid model where the effects of micro-rotation of fluid molecules were taken into account. But both the curl of velocity vector and the curl of micro-rotation gyration vector were given incorrectly in the Cartesian coordinates and then the micro-rotation gyration vector had only one component in the z-direction. Besides, the gradient term of the divergence of micro-rotation gyration vector was missed improperly in the angular moment equation. In this paper, the governing equations for laminar flows of micropolar fluid in rectangular microchannels are reconstructed. The numerical results of velocity profiles and micro-rotation gyrations are obtained by a procedure based on the Chebyshev collocation method. The micropolar effects on velocity and micro-rotation gyration are discussed in detail.The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10472054). The English text was polished by Boyi Wang.     

Two-phase flow patterns in short horizontal rectangular microchannels

The two-phase flow in a short horizontal channel of a rectangular cross-section with the height of 100–500 µm and width of 9–40 mm was studied experimentally. The use of the Schliren and fluorescent methods made it possible to reveal the flow of liquid in the channel and to determine its characteristics quantitatively. The features of the churn, jet and drop flow patterns were studied in details. Two particular regimes that can be distinguished represent formation of immobile drops on the channel walls because of the liquid film or liquid bridges breakage and appearance of mobile drops due to the two-phase flow instabilities. It is found out that formation of various two-phase flow patterns and transitions between them are determined by instabilities of the liquid–gas flow in the side parts of a channel. Frontal instability has been observed during the liquid–gas interaction in the region of liquid output from the nozzle. It is shown that a change in the height and width of the horizontal channels has a substantial effect on the boundaries between the flow regimes. One of the results is that the region of the churn regime increases significantly with decreasing thickness of the channel.     

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF THREE DIMENSIONAL TURBULENT FLOW IN SUDDENLY EXPANDED RECTANGULAR DUCT

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Segmented gas–liquid flow characterization in rectangular microchannels

We used optical methods such as Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) and confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (LSM) to characterize gas–liquid phase distribution in rectangular microchannels. Using a 2 m long microchannel with a hydraulic diameter of 200 μm enables the precise measurement of important parameters such as liquid slug length, bubble length, pressure drop and film thickness at the wall as well as in the corner of the microchannel for low Capillary numbers (Ca) ranging from 2 × 10⁻⁴ to 1 × 10⁻². This range of Ca was obtained by using different fluid pairs such as ethanol, water and different concentrated aqueous solutions of glycerol in combination with nitrogen.     

Direct numerical simulation of the turbulent flow in a pipe with annular cross section

The turbulent flow in a pipe of annular cross section is studied for the first time through a direct numerical simulation (DNS) using the Navier–Stokes equations written in cylindrical coordinates. To this aim a novel numerical method is developed, which extends to the cylindrical coordinate system an existing, efficient method designed for cartesian coordinates, and allows us to eliminate the pressure and formulate the problem in two scalar unknowns. The unnecessary increase of resolution at smaller radius typically brought about by polar coordinates, with its consequent stability limitations, is avoided by changing the number of azimuthal Fourier modes with the radial coordinate itself. In addition, the azimuthal extension of the computational domain is reduced, for the cases with lowest curvature, by considering only a part of the annulus, without loss of physical significance of the results. A computer code based on this method is run on a desktop PC for the simulation (with up to 16 million degrees of freedom) of the turbulent flow in a pipe with annular cross section, in a range of relatively low curvatures. This investigation highlights that curvature effects are already evident, even on first order turbulence statistics like the mean axial velocity distribution, in a low-curvature range where it is commonly believed that the flow should be hardly distinguishable from the flow over a plane surface.     

The generation of steady flow in a rectangular duct

The generation of the steady rectilinear flow of an Oldroyd B fluid in a rectangular duct is considered. The Laplace transform is used to separate out the time dependence from the governing equations and a Fourier series is used to solve the resulting Poisson problem in the space variables. It is seen that the presence of elasticity in the fluid gives rise to velocity overshoot. The solution of Waters and King for the planar channel is recovered at large aspect ratios.     

Pressure effects on electroosmotic flow of power-law fluids in rectangular microchannels

In this paper, the fully developed electroosmotic flow of power-law fluids in rectangular microchannels in the presence of pressure gradient is analyzed. The electrical potential and momentum equations are numerically solved through a finite difference procedure for a non-uniform grid. A complete parametric study reveals that the pressure effects are more pronounced at higher values of the channel aspect ratio and smaller values of the flow behavior index. The Poiseuille number is found to be an increasing function of the channel aspect ratio for pressure assisted flow and a decreasing function of this parameter for pressure opposed flow. It is also observed that the Poiseuille number is increased by increasing the zeta potential. Furthermore, the results show that an increase in the flow behavior index results in a lower flow rate ratio, defined to be the ratio of the flow rate to that of a Newtonian fluid at the same conditions. Moreover, whereas the flow rate ratio in the presence of an opposed pressure gradient is smaller than that of a favorable pressure force for shear thinnings, the opposite is true for shear-thickening fluids.     

Fluid flow and heat transfer in microchannels with rectangular cross section

Forced convective heat transfer coefficients and friction factors for flow of water in microchannels with a rectangular cross section were measured. An integrated microsystem consisting of five microchannels on one side and a localized heater and seven polysilicon temperature sensors along the selected channels on the other side was fabricated using a double-polished-prime silicon wafer. For the microchannels tested, the friction factor constant obtained are values between 53.7 and 60.4, which are close to the theoretical value from a correlation for macroscopic dimension, 56.9 for D _h  = 100 μm. The heat transfer coefficients obtained by measuring the wall temperature along the micro channels were linearly dependent on the wall temperature, in turn, the heat transfer mechanism is strongly dependent on the fluid properties such as viscosity. The measured Nusselt number in the laminar flow regime tested could be correlated by which is quite different from the constant value obtained in macrochannels.     

Impact of aspect ratio on flow boiling of water in rectangular microchannels

In this paper we focus on the impact of varying the aspect ratio of rectangular microchannels, on the overall pressure drop involving water boiling. An integrated system comprising micro-heaters, sensors and microchannels has been realized on (1 1 0) silicon wafers, following CMOS compatible process steps. Rectangular microchannels were fabricated with varying aspect ratios (width [W] to depth [H]) but constant hydraulic diameter of 142 ± 2 μm and length of 20 mm. The invariant nature of the hydraulic diameter is confirmed through two independent means: physical measurements using profilometer and by measuring the pressure drop in single-phase fluid flow. The experimental results show that the pressure drop for two-phase flow in rectangular microchannels experiences minima at an aspect ratio of about 1.6. The minimum is possibly due to opposing trends of frictional and acceleration pressure drops, with respect to aspect ratio. In a certain heat flux and mass flux range, it is observed that the two-phase pressure drop is lower than the corresponding single-phase value. This is the first study to investigate the effect of aspect ratio in two-phase flow in microchannels, to the best of our knowledge. The results are in qualitative agreement with annular flow model predictions. These results improve the possibility of designing effective heat-sinks based on two-phase fluid flow in microchannels.     

复杂微通道气体流动的格子Boltzmann模拟

构建了一个模拟复杂微通道内气体流动的多松弛格子Boltzmann模型。该模型采用动力学曲面滑移边界,考虑了微尺度效应和努森层影响。此外,为了更准确地描述微通道内气体的滑移速度,在模型中引入孔隙局部Kn数来代替平均Kn数。之后采用Poiseuille流对模型进行验证,模拟结果与用直接模拟蒙特卡洛方法和分子模拟结果吻合较好,证明了该模型模拟微通道内处于滑移区和过渡区气体流动的有效性。最后,采用该模型模拟多孔介质内气体渗流过程。结果表明,随着孔隙平均Kn数的增加,多孔介质内的高渗区域增加,且优先从小孔隙中开始增加,这是由于小孔隙中微尺度效应更加明显,相对大孔隙流动阻力更小所致。     

天然弯曲河流的三维数值模拟

对Cartesian坐标系下的RANS方程进行三维$\xi$-$\eta$-$\zeta$坐标变换，建 立了非正交三维曲线坐标下弯曲河流的标准$k$-$\varepsilon$湍流模型. 对自由水面 的模拟采用``改进的刚盖假定'，河床和岸壁阻力的模拟采用壁面函数方法. 模型通 过具有实验数据的实验室连续弯曲水槽进行验证，模拟的流速值与实验数 据吻合良好，将模型应用于天然连续弯曲河流的流场计算，给出了表层和底层流速 矢量场和11个断面二次环流矢量图，显示该模型具有模拟天然弯曲河流的能力.     

Experimental investigation of flow and heat transfer for the ethanol-water solution and FC-72 in rectangular microchannels

Rapid development of super scale integration circuit (IC) provides unprecedented challenge to thermal control for aviation electronic equipments. To solve the problem of cooling electronic chips and devices for aircraft avionics, this paper experimentally investigated the characteristics of single-phase forced convection heat transfer and flow resistance in rectangular microchannels with two liquid coolants. One was 30% of ethanol–water solution, the most commonly used coolant in aviation. The other was FC-72, the latest coolant for electronic equipments. Based on the experimental data collected and those available in the open literature, comparisons and analyses were carried out to evaluate the influences of liquid velocity, supercooling temperature, microchannel structures and wall temperature etc. on the heat transfer behaviors. And the correlations of flow resistance and heat transfer characteristics were provided for the ethanol–water solution and FC-72 respectively. The results indicate transition from laminar to turbulent flow occurs at the Reynolds number of 750–1,250 for FC-72, and the behaviors of flow and heat transfer in rectangular microchannels strongly depend on the kind of coolant and geometric configuration of microchannels.     

垂直上升气液环状流流动参数的数值计算

提出了一个新的气核-液膜耦合模型来求解垂直上升气液环状流在充分发展段的流动参数.本模型考虑了液膜、气核以及它们之间的相互影响和作用.模型中基本的气核区域和液膜区域的质量和动量方程由Fluent6.3.26进行求解,而液滴方程以及相界面上的夹带和沉积作用通过用户自定义接口函数UDF(User Defined Functi...     

Oscillatory flow in microchannels

Commonly used, lumped-parameter expressions for the impedance of an incompressible viscous fluid subjected to harmonic oscillations in a channel were compared with exact expressions, based on solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations for slots and channels of circular and rectangular cross-section, and were found to differ by as much as 30% in amplitude. These differences resulted in predicted discrepancies by as much as 400% in frequency response amplitude for simple second-order systems based on size scales and frequencies encountered in microfluidic devices. These predictions were verified experimentally for rectangular microchannels and indicate that underdamped fluidic systems operating near the corner frequency of any included flow channel should be modeled with exact expressions for impedance to avoid potentially large errors in predicted behavior.List of symbols A Channel cross-sectional area (m²) - A_c Membrane area (m²) - a Rectangular duct and slot half-width or radius (m) - b Rectangular duct half-depth and slot depth (m) - C Capacitance (m³/Pa) - C - D_h Channel hydraulic diameter (m) - E Voltage (V) - f Darcy friction factor - F Force (N) - I Channel inertance (Pa s²/m³) - i - Imaginary part of a complex number - J_k Bessel function of the first kind of order k - System transfer function - K Sum of minor loss factors - k Membrane stiffness (N/m) - L Channel length (m) - n Outward unit normal vector - P Fluid pressure (Pa) - p_n - Q Volumetric flow rate (m³/s) - R Channel resistance (Pa s/m³) - Real part of a complex number - Re Reynolds number, - V Velocity (m/s) - _V Volume (m³) - w Axial component of velocity (m/s) - Harmonic amplitude of membrane centerline displacement - Fluid impedance (kg/m⁴ s) - Duct aspect ratio, b/a - ² Nondimensional frequency parameter, - Nondimensional corner frequency, - Membrane shape factor - C/C - µ Fluid dynamic viscosity (Pa s) - Fluid kinematic viscosity (m²/s) - Mass density (kg/m³) - Radian frequency - _c R_s/I_s cutoff or corner frequency - _n Undamped natural frequency - Channel shape parameter in Eqs. 29 and 30 - Damping ratio - ( )_e Exact property - ( )_s Simplified property - (^–) Spatial average - Complex quantity     

Study on the numerical schemes for hypersonic flow simulation

Hypersonic flow is full of complex physical and chemical processes, hence its investigation needs careful analysis of existing schemes and choosing a suitable scheme or designing a brand new scheme. The present study deals with two numerical schemes Harten, Lax, and van Leer with Contact (HLLC) and advection upstream splitting method (AUSM) to effectively simulate hypersonic flow fields, and accurately predict shock waves with minimal diffusion. In present computations, hypersonic flows have been modeled as a system of hyperbolic equations with one additional equation for non-equilibrium energy and relaxing source terms. Real gas effects, which appear typically in hypersonic flows, have been simulated through energy relaxation method. HLLC and AUSM methods are modified to incorporate the conservation laws for non-equilibrium energy. Numerical implementation have shown that non-equilibrium energy convect with mass, and hence has no bearing on the basic numerical scheme. The numerical simulation carried out shows good comparison with experimental data available in literature. Both numerical schemes have shown identical results at equilibrium. Present study has demonstrated that real gas effects in hypersonic flows can be modeled through energy relaxation method along with either AUSM or HLLC numerical scheme.     

磁驱动飞片的一维磁流体动力学数值研究

磁驱动高速飞片技术是近年来发展的一种新型实验技术,在冲击波物理领域得到应用。该过程伴随着磁场扩散,并由此引起焦耳加热,使得飞片加载面的相状态发生变化,这决定了飞片厚度的范围。基于拉格朗日坐标系,利用磁流体动力学方程组、电阻率方程和状态方程数据库,对磁驱动铝飞片进行了一维磁流体动力学数值计算,获得了不同时刻铝飞片密度、温度的剖面分布,得到了磁场扩散速率随加载电流密度的变化关系。文章所选取的电导率方程只考虑到汽化点为止,对于等离子体形成的过程无法描述,如果要精确描述更高电流密度下的驱动过程,需考虑更为普适的电导率方程。磁场扩散速率随加载电流密度的变化存在转折点,在转折点前后可分别用两个线性关系表达式加以刻画。利用这些关系和冲击波物理相关知识,对磁压加载等熵驱动飞片实验样品厚度的选择进行了研究。     

Pure axial flow of viscoelastic fluids in rectangular microchannels under combined effects of electro-osmosis and hydrodynamics

This paper presents an analysis of the combined electro-osmotic and pressure-driven axial flows of viscoelastic fluids in a rectangular microchannel with arbitrary aspect ratios. The rheological behavior of the fluid is described by the complete form of Phan-Thien–Tanner (PTT) model with the Gordon–Schowalter convected derivative which covers the upper convected Maxwell, Johnson–Segalman and FENE-P models. Our numerical simulation is based on the computation of 2D Poisson–Boltzmann, Cauchy momentum and PTT constitutive equations. The solution of these governing nonlinear coupled set of equations is obtained by using the second-order central finite difference method in a non-uniform grid system and is verified against 1D analytical solution of the velocity profile with less than 0.06% relative error. Also, a parametric study is carried out to investigate the effect of channel aspect ratio (width to height), wall zeta potential and the Debye–Hückel parameter on 2D velocity profile, volumetric flow rate and the Poiseuille number in the mixed EO/PD flows of viscoelastic fluids with different Weissenberg numbers. Our results show that, for low channel aspect ratios, the previous 1D analytical models underestimate the velocity profile at the channel half-width centerline in the case of favorable pressure gradients and overestimate it in the case of adverse pressure gradients. The results reveal that the inapplicability of the Debye–Hückel approximation at high zeta potentials is more significant for higher Weissenberg number fluids. Also, it is found that, under the specified values of electrokinetic parameters, there is a threshold for velocity scale ratio in which the Poiseuille number is approximately independent of channel aspect ratio.     

Analytical and numerical methods of symplectic system for Stokes flow in two-dimensional rectangular domain

In this paper,a new analytical method of symplectic system.Hamiltonian system,is introduced for solving the problem of the Stokes flow in a two-dimensional rectangular domain.In the system,the fundamental problem is reduced to all eigenvalue and eigensolution problem.The solution and boundary conditions call be expanded by eigensolutions using ad.ioint relationships of the symplectic ortho-normalization between the eigensolutions.A closed method of the symplectic eigensolution is presented based on completeness of the symplectic eigensolution space.The results show that fundamental flows can be described by zero eigenvalue eigensolutions,and local effects by nonzero eigenvalue eigensolutions.Numerical examples give various flows in a rectangular domain and show effectivenees of the method for solving a variety of problems.Meanwhile.the method can be used in solving other problems.     

Analytical and numerical methods of symplectic system for Stokes flow in two-dimensional rectangular domain

In this paper, a new analytical method of symplectic system, Hamiltonian system, is introduced for solving the problem of the Stokes flow in a two-dimensional rectangular domain. In the system, the fundamental problem is reduced to an eigenvalue and eigensolution problem. The solution and boundary conditions can be expanded by eigensolutions using adjoint relationships of the symplectic ortho-normalization between the eigensolutions. A closed method of the symplectic eigensolution is presented based on completeness of the symplectic eigensolution space. The results show that fundamental flows can be described by zero eigenvalue eigensolutions, and local effects by nonzero eigenvalue eigensolutions. Numerical examples give various flows in a rectangular domain and show effectiveness of the method for solving a variety of problems. Meanwhile, the method can be used in solving other problems.