Developed and quasi-developed macro-scale heat transfer in micro- and mini-channels with arrays of offset strip fins subject to a uniform heat flux

TL;DR

This study investigates macro-scale heat transfer in micro- and mini-channels with offset strip fins, revealing that quasi-developed transfer dominates and can be modeled with simple correlations, across various geometries and flow conditions.

Contribution

It provides detailed numerical analysis of developed and quasi-developed heat transfer regions, including the effects of side walls and flow entrance, for a wide range of channel geometries and fluid properties.

Findings

Developed heat transfer onset increases linearly with Péclet number and channel width.

Quasi-developed heat transfer dominates most of the entrance region.

Developed Nusselt number correlations predict local heat transfer with less than 25% discrepancy.

Abstract

In the present work, we examine to what degree the heat transfer can be described as developed on a macro-scale level in typical micro- and mini-channels with offset strip fin arrays subject to a uniform heat flux, considering flow entrance and side-wall effects. Full-scale numerical heat transfer simulations are conducted to determine the extent of the developed macro-scale heat transfer region within the arrays. We find that the onset point of developed heat transfer increases linearly with the P\'eclet number and channel width. However, the thermal development lengths remain limited relative to the overall channel length. Therefore, the local macro-scale heat transfer coefficient can be modeled by developed Nusselt number correlations with discrepancies below 25% in both the developed and developing heat transfer regions. We observe that quasi-developed heat transfer prevails over nearly the entire entrance region of the channel and significantly contributes to the main heat transfer characteristics, particularly the eigenvalues and amplitudes of the dominant temperature modes. Additionally, we analyze the impact of channel side walls on the temperature field's periodicity and the macro-scale temperature profile, which we characterize through an effective heat transfer coefficient. Our comprehensive numerical data covers various fin height-to-length ratios up to 1, fin pitch-to-length ratios up to 0.5, and channel aspect ratios ranging from 1/5 to 1/17, encompassing Reynolds numbers from 28 to 1224. Two sets of Prandtl number and thermal conductivity ratio are investigated, corresponding to the combinations of copper/air, and copper/water.