Thermal Transport in the Entry Region of a Microchannel in the Presence of Electro-osmotic Flow

The motion of a polar fluid in microducts induced by an external electric field, known as electro-osmotic flow, enables fluid circulation without the need for mechanical devices. This feature makes it particularly appealing for the thermal management of electronic components, as microchannels with a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of physics. Conference series 2024-11, Vol.2893 (1), p.012088
Main Authors: Suzzi, Nicola, Lorenzini, Marco
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aspect ratio
Corners
Electric fields
Electronic components
Electroosmosis
Fluid flow
Heat transfer
Heat transmission
Mechanical devices
Microchannels
Ohmic dissipation
Resistance heating
Smoothing
Thermal management
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The motion of a polar fluid in microducts induced by an external electric field, known as electro-osmotic flow, enables fluid circulation without the need for mechanical devices. This feature makes it particularly appealing for the thermal management of electronic components, as microchannels with almost any cross-sectional shape can be easily integrated on the chips. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate how the channel’s geometry influences heat transfer performance. This study investigates the thermal entry region and fully developed electro-osmotic flow in a microchannel with a rectangular cross-section and smoothed corners, with one adiabatic wall and uniform temperature elsewhere. The paper proposes correlations for the Poiseuille and Nusselt numbers, taking into account the aspect ratio and non-dimensional smoothing radius under fully developed thermal and hydrodynamic conditions, which can be valuable for practical design purposes. The study also emphasizes how Joule heating may lead to the reversal of heat flow and how the thermal entry length is linearly dependent on the logarithm of the non-dimensional Joule heating in thermally developing flow. Additionally, it demonstrates that smoothing the corners may increase the local Nusselt number over sharp corners, but it may also shorten the thermal entry length.
ISSN:1742-6588
1742-6596
DOI:10.1088/1742-6596/2893/1/012088