A microchannel is 200 micrometer square in cross section and 20 mm long.

For
liquid flow at a temperature of 25 C, plot Reynolds number versus pressure drop in
the range of Re from 10 to 2000. Display another axis parallel to Re axis on which
liquid flow rate is plotted in terms of milli liters per minute. Find out average Nusselt
number for the microchannel under constant heat flux boundary condition.

Due to the fact that the shape of the cross section is not specified; pressure drop as function of the
Reynolds number is computed for the most conventional profiles for ducts.
Overall pressure drop along the entire length of a duct is computed using Eq. (1.1). It works under
the assumption of fully developed laminar flow, for our case this assumption is true due to the
small values for Re and since the length of the channel is much higher than the hydraulic diameter.

2
2
h
f u L
P
D

A = (1.1)
The Reynolds number is defined as:
Re
h
uD

= (1.2)
For non-circular ducts the hydraulic diameter is proportional to the ratio of the cross section area
to the wetted perimeter as follows:

4
c
h
A
D
P
= (1.3)
The product of the Reynolds number and the friction factor, known as the Poiseuille number (Po)
is extensively reported in the literature for conventional ducts
Re Po f = (1.4)
Inserting Eqs (1.2 & 1.4) into (1.1) yields to:

2
3
2 Re
h
Po L
P
D

A = (1.5)
The volumetric flow rate related with Re and the cross section area for a duct is:

Re
h
A
V
D

= (1.6)

CASES UNDER STUDY
Circular
The hydraulic diameter is computed from the next formulae

4
c
h
A
D
t
= (1.7)
For circular ducts Po=16 and the Nusselt number (Nu) for constant wall heat flux is Nu=4.36.
Rectangular
The aspect ratio is defined as =b/a for the selected values of the aspect ratio the
corresponding values of Po and Nu are shown in Table 1.

c
A ab = (1.8)
Table 1. Selected parameters for rectangular ducts.
Aspect ratio Po Nu
1 14.23 3.61
2 15.55 4.13
3 17.09 4.79

Hexagon
Po=15.05, Nu= 4

2
3 tan60
2
c
l
A

= (1.9)
6 P l = (1.10)
Isosceles Triangle
Table 2 shows Po and Nu for the selected values of the apex angle.
Table 2. Po and Nu for the selected triangular ducts.
Apex angle Po Nu
60 13.33 3.11
90 13.15 2.98
120 12.74 2.68

2
sin
2
c
l
A
u
= (1.11)
l
Ellipse
For the analysis of elliptical ducts the ratio of the major to minor axis
(a/b) is the parameter selected to vary. In Table 3 the corresponding
values for Po and Nu for the different values of a/b are listed.

Table 3. Po and Nu for the elliptical ducts under study.
Major/Minor axis Po Nu
2 16.82 4.56
4 18.24 4.88

The total area inside the ellipse can be found using the next formulae:

c
A abt = (1.12)
The corresponding perimeter of the ellipse is:
( ) ( )( ) 3 3 3 P a b a b a b t
(
= + + +

(1.13)

RESULTS
For the liquid flow, water at 25C is considered with the following properties:
0.0008905
kg
m s

= (1.14)

3
997.1
kg
m
= (1.15)
The variation of the pressure drop as function of Reynolds number for the aforementioned duct
profiles is shown in Figure 1.To obtain the units reported in Figure 1 Eqs (1.5) and (1.7) are
modified with the required conversion factors. It can be observed that the duct shape possessing
the lowest pressure drop is the circular duct, on the other hand the worst hydraulic performance
is achieved by using the Isosceles triangle duct with =120. Figure 1 can be a very useful chart due
to the fact that for a desired volumetric flow rate or Re a comparison among different duct profiles
can be obtained to select the duct shape that fits the hydraulic requirements.


Figure 1. Variation of the pressure drop with Re and the corresponding volumetric flow rate.
0 400 800 1200 1600 2000
0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1 1,2
Re
P


[
k
P
a
]
Q [ml/min]
Circular Circular
Rectangular (b/a =1) Rectangular (b/a =1)
Rectangular (b/a =2) Rectangular (b/a =2)
Rectangular (b/a =3) Rectangular (b/a =3)
Hexagon Hexagon
Isoceles triangle Isoceles triangle
Isoceles triangle Isoceles triangle
Isoceles triangle Isoceles triangle
Ellipse (a/b =2) Ellipse (a/b =2)
Ellipse (a/b =4) Ellipse (a/b =4)