Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak

Campus)

Swinburne University of
Technology Sarawak Campus
Faculty of Engineering, Computing & Sciences

Simulation of Thermo-Hydraulic Performance for Single-Phase

Flow in Semi-circular Cross-section Serpentine Microchannel with
10m

Bachelor of Engineering

(Mechanical)

Chan Su Ming (7440286)

June 2016
 Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak
Campus)

Declaration

We hereby declare that this report entitled Simulation of Thermo-Hydraulic

Performance for Single-Phase Flow in Semi-circular Cross-section Serpentine
Microchannel Below 10m is the result of our own project work except for quotations
and citations which have been duly acknowledged. We also declare that it has not been
previously or concurrently submitted for any other degree at Swinburne University of
Technology (Sarawak Campus).
Name: Chan Su Ming
ID: 7440286
Date: June 2016

i
Acknowledgement
Completing a thesis is not an easy thing to accomplish as it requires the involvement
and guidance from other professional members. Throughout the progress, we were all
showed up painstaking effort and spent valuable time in producing the best thesis.

It is my pleasure to thank all peoples whos ever involved to made this thesis possible.
First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Chong
Kok Hing. He was assiduous and magnanimous in pointing out my slips and shared his
experiences to improve my works and quality of this thesis.

Besides, I would like to thank Dr. Basil Wong for constructive comments of my works.
From that, I make the final decision of what CFD application to use for simulation.

I would like to thank some of the YouTube subscriber who really showed a beneficial
tutorial for ANSYS FLUENT. Without those tutorial, I may face difficulty in
completing the simulation section of this project.

Lastly, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my family who has been
providing me support and strength these years. Their supports have enhanced my
confidence to tackle hurdles and create a new breakthrough in my life.

ii
 Abstract

Energy security always is a concern for many countries as it ensures progress

and development of a country. Malaysia 4is land that blessed with vast natural
resource. In view of the potential depletion of fossil fuels, and energy security,
your group had been task to innovating a creative, renewable and sustainable
energy device to deliver energy for either an individual, domestic or industry
purposes.
In this report, wind turbine has been proposed as Malaysia has the suitable
weather and climate which makes it a big potential in using the wind energy.
The goals are to study the potential of wind energy in Malaysia and ways to
enhance the efficiency of the wind turbine. This research will provide valuable
information regarding the use of wind turbine to improve human lifestyles and
environment in the future. The methods to accomplish this research are by
designing an innovative wind turbine based on the current wind turbine and
investigate the

5
Table of Contents

Declaration....................................................................................................................... i

Acknowledgement.......................................................................................................... ii

Abstract.......................................................................................................................... iii

Table of Contents........................................................................................................... iv

List of Figures................................................................................................................ vi

List of Tables............................................................................................................... viii

List of mathematical operators....................................................................................... ix

List of symbols.............................................................................................................. ix

List of Geek symbols...................................................................................................... x

Chapter 1: Introduction................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Research Background.......................................................................................... 1

1.2 Problem statement................................................................................................ 2

1.3 Aims.................................................................................................................... 2

1.4 Objective.............................................................................................................. 3

1.5 Research question................................................................................................ 3

Chapter 2: Literature Review.......................................................................................... 4

2.1 Nusselt Number................................................................................................... 4

2.2 Heat Transfer Enhancement and Pressure Drop.................................................. 6

4
 2.3 Flow Behavior of Serpentine Channel................................................................. 7

2.4 Effect of Geometrical Parameters...................................................................... 11

2.4.1 Half Wavelength......................................................................................... 12

2.4.2 Radius of Curvature.................................................................................... 13

2.5 Effect of Reynolds Number............................................................................... 14

2.6 Chapter summary............................................................................................... 15

Chapter 3: Methodology................................................................................................ 17

3.1 Method of investigation..................................................................................... 17

3.1.1 Design of Serpentine Microchannel............................................................ 17

3.1.2 Nusselt number methodology..................................................................... 18

3.1.3 Computational Fluid Dynamics Methodology........................................... 19

3.2 Scope................................................................................................................. 21

3.2.1 Assumptions................................................................................................ 21

3.2.2 Boundary Conditions................................................................................. 21

3.2.3 Straight Microchannel................................................................................. 22

3.2.4 Serpentine Microchannel............................................................................ 22

3.3 Chapter summary.............................................................................................. 24

Chapter 4: Results and Discussion................................................................................ 25

4.1 Straight Channel................................................................................................. 25

4.1.1 Numerical method....................................................................................... 25

5
 4.1.2 Nusselt number of Transitional microchannel............................................ 26

4.2 Serpentine Channel............................................................................................ 29

4.2.1 Enhancement factor of serpentine channel................................................. 29

4.3 Effect of Reynolds number................................................................................ 32

4.4 Chapter Summary.............................................................................................. 36

Chapter 5: Conclusion................................................................................................... 37

5.1 Introduction....................................................................................................... 37

5.2 Conclusion......................................................................................................... 37

5.2.1 Geometric parameters and boundary conditions........................................ 37

5.2.2 Effect of Reynolds number on enhancement factor.................................... 37

5.2.3 Effect of Reynolds number on pressure drop.............................................. 38

5.2.4 Comparison between numerical result and theoretical results....................38

5.3 Contribution of this work.................................................................................. 38

5.4 Scope and limitation of this work..................................................................... 39

5.5 Recommendation of future work....................................................................... 39

5.6 Concluding remarks of this study..................................................................... 40

6.0 References............................................................................................................... 41

7.1 Appendix................................................................................................................. 42

7.2 Outline of Semester 2 Plan................................................................................ 42

7.3 Investigation Methodology................................................................................. 44

6
7.3 Gantt Chart......................................................................................................... 45

7.4 Results for straight transitional microchannel................................................... 46

7.5 Results of serpentine transitional microchannel................................................ 47

7
List of Figures

Chapter 1

Figure 1.1: The schematic shows the flow in printed circuit heat exchanger..................1

Chapter 2

Figure 2.1: Schematic shows the Nusselt number of different cross section versus
distance from inlet on a logarithmic scale. Modified from Fourie (2011)
................................................................................................................. ...5

Figure 2.2: The schematic showing the heat transfer enhancement versus Reynolds
number for semi-circular and triangular for serpentine channel under
uniform wall temperature (T) boundary condition......................................7
Figure 2.3: Heat transfer enhancement (eNu) as a function of the propotional distance
of the semi-circular serpentine microchannel with different value of
Reynolds number....................................................................................... 10

vi
Figure 2.4: Velocity contour in each bend of serpentine microchannel. ......................10

Figure 2.5: Schematic of a serpentine geometry showing its axial and cross-section

................................................................................................................................... ..11
Figure 2.6: The heat transfer enhancement (eNu) and pressure drop penalty versus the
half wavelength to diameter ratio L/d. .....................................................12

Figure 2.7: The heat transfer enhancement (eNu) and pressure drop penalty versus
the radius ratio Rc/d in a serpentine
microchannel. ............................................................................................ 13
Figure 2.8: The heat transfer enhancement and relative pressure drop versus Reynolds
number for L/d = 4.5, Rc/d = 1 and Pr = 6.13 with H2 and T boundary
conditions. ................................................................................................. 14
Figure 2.9: The isosurface shows the strength of vortex at Reynolds number 100, 200,
300 and 400 respectively
................................................................................................................... 15
Chapter 3

Figure 3.1: Three sections of the serpentine microchannel path layout .......................18

Figure 3.2: Mesh density on a cross-section ................................................................18

Figure 3.3: Locations where the Nusselt number are calculated for Reynolds number
investigation .............................................................................................. 23
Chapter 4

Figure 4.1: The schematic shows the Nusselt number obtained versus channel length

.................................................................................................................. 26

Figure 4.2: The schematic shows the Nusselt number obtained versus dimensionless
axial distance
................................................................................................................... 27
Figure 4.3: Schematic shows the temperature boundary layer of internal channel. a) The
section view shows the development of temperature boundary layer from
vii
 channel entrance. b) The temperature contour of channel inlet. c) The
temperature contour of channe outlet.
................................................................................................................... 28
Figure 4.4: Schematic shows the velocity boundary layer of internal channel. a) The
section view shows the development of velocity boundary layer from the
channel entrance. b) The velocity contour at channel inlet. c) The velocity
contour at channel outlet.
................................................................................................................... 28

vii
Figure 4.5: Heat transfer enhancement as a function of proportional distance within the
transitional serpentine microchannel with Rc/d=1 and L/d=4.5 for T
boundary condition.
................................................................................................................... 29
Figure 4.6: Schematic shows the velocity contour of the serpentine central unit with
Reynolds number of 100 and uniform wall temperature boundary condition
(T). ............................................................................................................ 31
Figure 4.7: Speed contour at various bends downstream location for Reynolds number
of 150.
................................................................................................................... 31
Figure 4.8: Schematic shows the velocity of fluid passing through each bend. (a) The
vector form of fluid movement within serpentine central section. (b) The
streamlines that show radial movement of fluid at bends region.
................................................................................................................... 32
Figure 4.9: Graph of average heat transfer enhancement versus Reynolds number for
uniform wall temperature boundary condition.
................................................................................................................... 33
Figure 4.10: Comparison of simulation result with Fourie (2011) with different
hydraulic diameter.
................................................................................................................... 34
Figure 4.11: The effect of Reynolds number on pressure drop of serpentine channel.

................................................................................................................. .35

List of Tables

Table 1: Nusselt number from different references..........................................................5

Table 2: Summary of related journals to this research project .....................................16

Table3: The conditions applied for investigation of straight semicircular

microchannel ................22

viii
Table 4: Flow velocities at different Reynolds numbers ..............................................23

Table 5: Interpretation of each point ............................................................................24

Table 6: Results of the effect of Reynolds number on average heat transfer enhancement.

.......................................................................................................................32

viii
List of mathematical operators
a
Partial derivative with respect to time
at

Integral over area As

As Summation of property over species j
As

Divergence of vector field

List of symbols
A Heat transfer surface area
Cp Specific heat capacity

Dh Hydraulic diameter

Dn Dean number

ef Pressure drop penalty

eNu Heat transfer enhancement

External body forces

f Fanning friction factor
h Heat transfer coefficient
I Unit tensor

j
Diffusion flux of species J

kf Thermal conductivity of fluid

Kef Effective conductivity (K+Kt ) where Kt is turbulent conductivity
T Temperature difference between wall surface and fluid
Nu Nusselt number
NuD Nusselt number of turbulent flow

9
Nupath shape Nusselt number for path shape

Nustraight Nusselt number for straight path

p Pressure
pr Prandtl number

1
0
Q Heat transfer
qw Averaged local wall heat flux

Re Reynolds number
ReD Reynolds number for turbulent flow

Rc Radius of curvature

Sm Mass added to the continuous phase from the dispersed second

phase and user- define sources

Tb Bulk fluid temperature

Tf Fluid temperature of selected cell

Tw Wall surface temperature

V Axial flow velocity

x Axial length from the channel entrance

x* Dimensionless axial distance

List of Greek symbols

p Fluid density
Dynamic viscosity

Stress tensor
pv Gravitational body force
Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Research Background

The function of heat exchangers is designed to transfer thermal energy between two or
more different temperature of fluids. For most of the heat exchanger, the fluids are
separated by a solid wall and the heat transfer occurs through the wall. This specifically is
to transfer heat from the wall to coolant that flowing through internal channel. Nowadays,
the developments of heat exchangers are in rapid pace which it can be used in many
application, such as automotive, electronics, space application, air conditioning,
manufacturing industry, etc. (Al-Obaidi 2011).

There are many type of heat exchanger such as shell-and-tube heat exchanger, coil heat
exchanger, plate heat exchanger as well as printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE). The
PCHE is as shown in Figure 1. It is kind of compact heat exchanger with multiple plates
stacked together.

There are many challenges raised in term of the heat exchanger design. For an instance,
the main requirements of heat exchanger are to be high heat transfer rate, compact and low
cost. Industries are challenges to produce a higher heat transfer and durability heat
exchanger. This even harder when the size and cost are limited. One of the solution is to
make use of microchannel as it improves the component life, increase heat transfer
coefficient, reduce weight, volume and cost. (Al-Obaidi 2011). Therefore, the
investigation of transitional microchannel in this study is believed to increase heat transfer
performance of heat exchanger.

1
Figure 1.1: The schematic shows the flow in printed circuit heat exchanger

2
1.2 Problem statement
i. Costs

ii. Performance

iii. Energy

1.3 Aims
The purpose of this research project is to design an innovative wind turbine as
sustainable energy device in Malaysia.
1.4 Objectives
Hence, the objectives of this wind turbine are summarized as below:
i. To study the velocity of the wind turbine.
ii. To study the materials and components used to make wind turbine.
iii. To investigate the performance of a contra-rotating dual rotor system.
iv. To find a way in improving the wind energy conversion efficiency.
v. To find a way in decreasing the energy costs.

1.5 Research question

The research question of this study is How to design an innovative wind turbine and
ways to improve the efficiency of the wind turbine.
Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 Nusselt Number

Nusselt number is a dimensionless parameter with the ratio of convective to conductive

heat transfer across the boundary. From the equation below, the convective heat transfer
coefficient (h) can be determined once the value of Nusselt number is known.
hDh (1)
Nu =
kf

h Heat transfer coefficient

Dh Hydraulic diameter

kf Thermal conductivity of fluid

Once the value of heat transfer coefficient is obtained, the heat transfer between wall
surface and adjacent fluid can be determined by using the equation given below.
Q (2)
h =
AxLlT

Q Heat transfer

A Heat transfer surface area

T Temperature difference between wall surface and fluid

From Equation 1, the Nusselt number of fully developed laminar condition is not affected
by Reynolds number, Prandtl number and location within the channel. However, it is
affected by hydraulic diameter of the channel. This can be justified base on the Equation
1. With the fixed value of thermal conductivity of fluid, the Nusselt number increases as
hydraulic diameter increases and vice versa. The hydraulic diameter of the semi-circular
cross-section is given below where d is the diameter of channel.
(3)
d
Dh =
1+

Besides, the Nusselt number is also varied by boundary conditions of heat transfer, i.e.

constant wall heat flux (H2) or constant wall temperature (T) boundary condition.
Bergman, Incropera et al. (2011) has stated that the Nusselt number of circular tube was
4.36 under uniform heat flux (H2) boundary condition, whilst the Nusselt number was
equal to 3.66 under uniform wall surface temperature (T) boundary condition.

There were several numerical studies relative to laminar flow in semi-circular tube have
been published with the results of Nusselt number obtained as shown below.

Table 1: Nusselt number from different references

Nusselt number (Nu)

Boundary condition H2 T
Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006) 2.921 3.323
Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2007) 2.923 3.323
Geyer, Fletcher et al. (2007) 2.925 3.326
Fourie (2011) - 3.285
Venter (2010) - 3.221

Fourie (2011) has numerically investigated the channel with different cross-section such
as circular, semi-circular and triangular. The figure shown below is the results of Nusselt
number in fully developed condition in different cross-sectional channel. It shows that the
Nusselt number of circular, semi-circular and triangular are 3.633, 3.246 and 2.475
respectively. From Figure 2.1, once the flow is fully developed, the Nusselt number will
stay uniform throughout the channel.

Nusselt number of cross sections

Nusselt number (Nu)

120
100
80
60
40
20
0
 0.1 1 10 100 1000

Distance (mm)

circular semi-circualr triangular

Figure 2.1: Schematic shows the Nusselt number of different cross section versus distance
from inlet on a logarithmic scale. Modified from Fourie (2011)
The Nusselt number of fully developed turbulent flow is a function of Reynolds number
and Prandtl number. The correlation that can be used to determine the local Nusselt
number of turbulent flow is the Dittus-Boelter equation given in Equation 4 (Bergman,
Incropera et al. 2011). However, this equation is not relevant when dealing with
microchannel. Most of the microchannel is designed to keep laminar flow throughout the
channel as it is the preferred condition for heat exchanger. Any unsteady flow in the
channel will contribute to low heat transfer performance of heat exchanger (Fourie 2011).
Nu = pr n (4)
D
4/5
0.023Re
2.2 Heat Transfer Enhancement and Pressure Drop

Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006) has illustrated the comparative method to determine heat
transfer enhancement of different layout. Same hydraulic diameter, cross-section, fluid
and path length were used in design and numerically simulation. From Equation 5, it
shows that Nusselt number of the specific path layout is compared to the Nusselt number
of the straight channel. Therefore, any increase or decrease in heat transfer will be referred
to the path layout of the channel. In Figure 2.2, the value of heat transfer enhancement
factor (eNu) is higher in triangular cross section channel which is 4.857 and 4.054 in semi-
circular channel. It shows that the value of eNu increases as the Reynolds number
increases.

eNu = Nupath (5)

shape

Nustraight

The same approach is used to measure the pressure drop (ef) of different path layout. The

pressure drop penalty of the serpentine channel relative to straight channel is given below
(Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. 2006).
(pin - fserpentine

pout )serpentine

ef = = (p -p ) f
 (6)
in out straight straight

The pin and pout are average pressure of the inlet and outlet respectively. The area-averaged

pressure can be calculated by the equation below (Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. 2006).

1 (7)
p= I pA

As As x,y
Figure 2.2: The schematic showing the heat transfer enhancement versus Reynolds
number for semi-circular and triangular for serpentine channel under uniform wall
temperature (T) boundary condition. Modified from Fourie (2011).

2.3 Flow Behavior of Serpentine Channel

Numerous authors have stated that the rate of heat transfer is strongly dependent to the
flow behavior inside the microchannel. Usually, only laminar flow is prevailing in the
microchannel reactors. However, this laminar flow and development of boundary layers
can reduce the heat and mass transfer performance of a microchannel. The only solution
for this limitation is to disrupt the boundary layers along with radial mixing. There are
two mixing methods such as passive and active mixer which can be used to achieve the
desired mixing. The active mixer is to utilize the power or external forces while the
passive mixer is to use geometrical configuration to cause mixing (Karale, Bhagwat et
al. 2013). There are also increasing research on both internal obstruction and tortuous
mixing in order to determine the best configuration to vigorous mixing as well as heat
transfer (Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. 2006).
In this study, the serpentine layout is used as the configuration to determine fluid flow in
microchannel. The serpentine channel makes use of bends to change the flow direction
and subsequently increases fluid mixing. The bends also changed fluid momentum which
resulted in rotating fluid about an axis parallel to the flow and lead the formation of Dean
Vortices (Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. 2006).

The strength of Dean Vortices in each bends is different as it changed after every second
bend. There are four bends for a serpentine microchannel. Bends 1 and 3 are referred as
curvature reinforcing bends, whilst Bends 2 and 3 are referred as alternating or canceling
bends. These are the bends that will cancel or strengthen the Dean vortices and
subsequently affect the performance of heat transfer of the channel (Rosaguti, Fletcher et
al. 2006).

Based on equation 8, it shows that Dean Vortices is the function of Reynolds numbers and
geometric properties of bends. Dean number is dependent on the Reynolds number and
d
inversely associated with radius ratio (
).
Rc
d) (8)
Dn = Re (
Rc

Dn Dean number

Rc Radius of curvature

Re Reynold number

This equation also used to indicate the importance of inertia and centrifugal forces relative

to viscous forces. At low Dean Number or Reynolds number, the flow tends towards the
straight channel solution. There will be no secondary flow as the viscous forces of fluid
are larger than the inertia forces. This is because the viscous force suppressed the
formation of secondary flow. This is consistent with low heat transfer enhancement and
pressure drop at low Reynolds number. However, when the Reynolds number increases,
inertia forces become larger than the viscous forces and a single vortex is developed.
Besides, the flow complexity as well as the number and strength of vortices also increases
as the Reynolds number increases. (Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. 2006)
The Figure 2.3 shows the effect of bends on heat transfer enhancement. The heat transfer
is the highest in bends 1 and 3, whilst the bends 2 and 4 has lower heat transfer. This
implies that the Dean Vortices or secondary flow possessed high strength in bends 1 and
3 than bends 2 and 4.
The velocity contour that shown in Figure 2.4 is the fully developed section of serpentine
channel. It was observed that the rotational direction of vortices exiting bend 1 and bend
3 are in opposite direction. The vortices exiting bend 2 and bend 4 also in opposite
rotational direction. Based on the structure of the serpentine channel, bend 1 and bend 4
bends to the left while bends 2 and bend 3 bends to the right side. This is the clue that
have been used to determine the rotational direction of vortices at each bends. Thus,
from the Figure 2.4, the anticlockwise rotation of vortices are located in bends 1 and
4, and the vortices rotating clockwise in bends 2 and 3.

The rotational direction of Dean vortices alternate after every second bend. This causes
the bends to have different performance of heat transfer. For example, after the fluid flow
through the bend 1, the vortices rotate in reversed direction in bend 2 vicinity which
causing it to be weak in heat transfer. Similarly, the reversal direction in bend 4 after bend
3 causes the reduction in heat transfer. Since bend 2 and 3 have same rotational direction,
the strength of vortices are enhanced within the passage which causing bend 3 to have
good heat transfer performance. Likewise, the rotational direction of bend 4 and 1 are in
the same sense which causes the heat transfer enhancement to be better in bend 1. The
summary of heat transfer enhancement can be easily observed from the Figure 2.3.

Furthermore, the fluid flow recovers in straight channel between bends with Reynolds
number less than 300. The recovery subsequently stabalized the flow which in term cause
reduction in both mixing and heat transfer from the wall to the center of cross-section.
This effect can be notified from Figure 2.3.
 1 2 3 4

Figure 2.3: Heat transfer enhancement (eNu) as a function of the propotional distance of
the semi-circular serpentine microchannel with different value of Reynolds number. The
Rc L
condition applied are = l and = 4.5 for the boundary condition of uniform
wall
d d

surface temperature(T). Modified from (Fourie 2011).

Figure 2.4: Velocity contour in each bend of serpentine microchannel. The condition
Rc L
applied are = l and = 4.5 and Re = 200. The velocity countours extracted from
d d

(Fourie 2011).
2.4 Effect of Geometrical
Parameters

Numerous authors have verified the effect of geometrical parameter on heat transfer
enhancement and pressure drop in different path layout. Geyer, Fletcher et al. (2007) has
conducted Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) investigation on heat transfer
enhancement and pressure drop in trapezoidal channel with semi-circular cross section.
Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006) has investigated the heat transfer and pressure drop in
serpentine channel with semi-circular cross section. Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2007) has
conducted investigation of sinusoidal channels in term of low Reynolds number heat
transfer enhancement.

There are three parameters that contribute to heat transfer performance and pressure drop
penalty. These parameters are radius of curvature (Rc ), half wavelength (L) of the
channel
and diameter (d). The analytical results have proven that the heat transfer enhancement
and pressure drop decreases as the parameter Rc /d increases at fixed L/d and vice
versa.
At different path layout, the flow characterization inside the channel is significantly

affected. The reason of this effect is due to the strength of the Dean vortices and the flow
separation that occur around the bends vicinity. Besides, the diameter of channel is one of
the influencing factor that affecting the performance of heat transfer and pressure drop at
the bend vicinity. For example, Venter (2010) has numerically investigated the effect of
hydraulic diameter on pressure drop. It resulted that as the diameter decreases, the
pressure drop decreases and vice versa. This results also explained by Figure 2.6 in
which both of the heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop decreases as the diameter
decreases.
Figure 2.5: Schematic of a serpentine geometry showing its axial and cross-section
 2.4.1 Half
Wavelength

Figure 2.6 shows the effect of L/d on heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop
penalty.
It is observed that by increasing the number of L/d at fixed Rc /d, the heat
transfer
enhancement and pressure drop penalty decreases. The apparent effect of increasing L/d

is that the straight passage of the channel becomes longer. This increased straight section
stabilized the flow and subsequently reduce the mixing of fluids within straight section.
Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006) stated that the flow development occur in this longer
section causes the relaxation of heat transfer enhancement toward unity which is towards
the value for the straight channel flow. This can be explained by using Figure 2.3 which
the heat transfer enhancement decreases after exiting each bends. Therefore, as the straight
section between bends increases, the value of the heat transfer enhancement decreases.
The differences between the heat transfer enhancement of reinforcing bends and
cancelling bends also decreases as the parameter L/d increases. Thus, the straight
sections between bends must be reduced to increase the heat transfer enhancement and
pressure drop.
Figure 2.6: The heat transfer enhancement (eNu ) and pressure drop penalty versus the
half wavelength to diameter ratio L/d. The conditions applied are Rc /d =1, pr = 6.13
and
Re = 110 for the constant heat flux (H2) boundary condition. (Rosaguti, Fletcher et al.
2006)
 2.4.2 Radius of
Curvature

The effects of radius of curvature are shown in Figure 2.7. The heat transfer enhancement
and pressure drop are observed to decrease approximately linearly as the value of Rc/d
increases. Thus, by decreasing the Rc /d, better heat transfer enhancement and
pressure
drop can be obtained. At lower value of radius of curvature, the bends are sharper which

promote the formation of Dean Vortices and flow separation at bends vicinity. This is
supported by Xiong (2007) which has reported that the flow separation and vortices are
emerged at Reynolds numbers that within the range 100 to 300. The formation of flow
separation and Dean vortices can cause the pressure drop to increase around the bends.
The larger pressure drop penalty at Rc /d which less than 0.8 can be attributed to
the
occurrence of flow separation. Besides, the strength of vortices can be determined by
using
the equation 8 by substituting the value of Rc /d into the equation. Moreover, the effect
of
radius of curvature on heat transfer enhancement can be explained based on the path
layout
of channel. When the value of Rc /d decreases, the bends become sharper and the
vortices
becomes more complex which in term promote fluid mixing and increase heat transfer
enhancement at miter bends. However, when the value of Rc /d increases, the bends
becomes rounded and less vortices emerged at bends vicinity. Therefore, lower heat

transfer enhancement is resulted.

Figure 2.7: The heat transfer enhancement (eNu ) and pressure drop penalty versus the
radius ratio Rc /d in a serpentine microchannel. The conditions applied are L/d = 4.5,
pr

= 6.13 and Re = 110 for the constant heat flux (H2) boundary condition. (Rosaguti,
Fletcher et al. 2006)
2.5 Effect of Reynolds
Number

The effects of Reynolds number on heat transfer enhancement and relative pressure drop
penalty have been proven by various studies. Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006) has reported
that heat transfer and pressure drop increases as the value of the Reynolds number
increases. This consequence is attributed to the velocity of fluid flow being increased
when the Reynolds number is increased. The effect of Reynolds number on velocity of
fluid flow can be determined by using the equation given below.
Re = pV D h
(9)
f1

Figure 2.8 shows the results of Reynolds number up to 450 with L/d = 4.5 and Rc /d =
1
with constant heat flux (H2) and constant wall temperature (T) boundary conditions.
When

the Reynolds number exceeds 450, it produces unsteady flow (Rosaguti, Fletcher et al.
2006). At low Reynolds number, the thermal-hydraulic performance of serpentine channel
is low and the secondary flow is suppressed by the viscous forces. While, at high
Reynolds number, it causes the strength of Dean Vortices to increase and this consistent
with the increase of heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop (Fourie 2011).
Figure 2.8: The heat transfer enhancement and relative pressure drop versus Reynolds
number for L/d = 4.5, Rc/d = 1 and Pr = 6.13 with H2 and T boundary conditions.
Modified from Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006).
Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006) has reported the effect of Reynolds number on vortex
strength within the serpentine channel. From Figure 2.9, the strength of vortex increases
as the Reynolds number increases. At low Reynolds number, the vortex is weak due to
the flow development occur within the straight section of the serpentine channel. As the
Reynolds number increases, the strength of the vortex increases which allow it to survive
into the straight section as shown in Figure 2.9 (a)-(d). The strength of the vortex also
dependent on the location of the bends. Vortex strength is the highest at bends 2 and 4
which are the cancelling bends. Therefore, at high Reynolds number, the vortex strength
is high, which in turn increase the distance it can progress into the straight section.
(Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. 2006).

3
4

1 2

Inlet

Figure 2.9: The isosurface shows the strength of vortex at Reynolds number 100, 200, 300
and 400 respectively. Modified from Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006).

2.6 Chapter summary

The Nusselt number from different references shown in b will be used to verify the
numerical Nusselt number obtained. Since the laminar condition is more preferred, the
flow condition will only be set to laminar flow. The equations (1) - (3) will be used to
calculate the heat transfer coefficient and hydraulic diameter of the channel.

The method of comparison stated in section 2.2 of this chapter will be utilized in this
study. This method has been used by several authors such as Rosaguti, Venter and
Fletcher. By using this comparison method, any increase or decrease in heat transfer can
be deal with the difference of path layout.
Flow behavior is used to determine the strength of Dean vortices around the bends area.
At higher Reynolds number, the Dean vortices is higher at bends which promote better
heat transfer to occur.

The effect of geometrical parameters will not be investigated in this study, however, the
effects of both parameters must be understood so as the best configuration for serpentine
microchannel can be designed and numerically simulated.

The effect of Reynolds number on heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop is
numerically investigated in this study. From the literature, it shows that the heat transfer
enhancement and pressure drop increases as the Reynolds number increases. Hence, the
numerical result obtained from simulation should shows the similar effect as published
results.

The table below is the summary of some related journal and thesis that investigating
serpentine microchannel.

Table 2: Summary of related journals to this research project

Cross- Dh Reynolds
References Fluid Topic
section (mm) number
Rosaguti, >1 50-400 To investigate the effect of
Fletcher et Reynolds number and
al. (2006) Semi- Prandtl on fully developed
Water
circular flow and heat transfer in
Fourie 1.222 50-400 Investigate the effect of
(2011) Reynolds number and
geometrical parameter on
Semi- heat transfer enhancement
Water
circular on semi-circular and
Venter >1 50-400 To investigate
triangular the optimal
serpentine
Semi-
(2010) Water hydraulic diameter for semi-
circular
circular serpentine channel.
 Geyer, >1 50-400 To investigate the effect of
Fletcher et Reynolds number on
Semi-
al. (2007) Water trapezoidal channel with
circular
semicircular cross-section
Chapter 3: Methodology

There are three sections included in this chapter. The first one is the method of
investigations used in this study. This specially to describe how the serpentine
microchannel is investigated. Next is the flow simulation of SolidWorks in terms of how
it was set in current study. It was followed by the scope of study, which illustrated the
boundary conditions and assumption that have been made in this study. The last section is
the summary of this chapter.

3.1 Method of
investigation

The numerical analysis of this study was accomplished by using Ansys Workbench 16.1.
It is the new class of Computational fluid dynamics analysis software that able to solve
the Navier-Stoke equation and energy equation as most CFD software did.

There are two numerical investigations to be done numerically which are the straight and
serpentine transitional microchannel. First and foremost, the straight channel with
semicircular cross-section are simulated. Once the values of Nusselt numbers obtained are
approximately equal to the empirical value of cross-section as shown in literature review,
the verification is considered accomplished.

It was then followed by the simulation of semicircular cross-section serpentine

microchannel. All the assumptions and boundary conditions are described in the scope
section.

There are three sections of investigation methodology. The first one is the design of
serpentine microchannel. The second section is Nusselt number methodology that shows
important equation to be used in simulation. It is followed by the CFD methodology that
explained the Navier Stoke and energy equation.

3.1.1 Design of Serpentine

Microchannel
The CAD application of SolidWorks was used to design the straight microchannel as well
as the serpentine microchannel. In this study, the numerical investigation is of the
transitional microchannel, which hydraulic diameter is within the range 1m to 10 m.
Both straight and serpentine are designed in same hydraulic diameter and cross-section.
The serpentine microchannel is designed in three sections as shown in Figure 3.1. There
are several studies have illustrated the same method to investigate the serpentine
microchannel. For example, Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006) and Fourie (2011) have
designed the serpentine channel in three section to investigate the fully developed laminar
flow with Reynolds number up to 200 with constant hydraulic diameter and cross section
throughout the channel. In Figure 3.1, the function of the first section is to allow the
formation of fully developed flow in channel. Therefore, after section 1, the flow is fully
developed once it enters the second section of the channel (Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. 2006).

Section 2

Section 1 (entrance) (fully developed flow)

Flow Flow
enters exits

Figure 3.1: Three sections of the serpentine microchannel path layout

3.1.2 Nusselt number

methodology

According to Shah (1971), the Nusselt number of any cross-section have to be initiated
with very high value, then decreasing along the channel until the Nusselt number is
stabilized. The same result was obtained by Fourie (2011) which the Nusselt number of
the semicircular microchannel start to stabilize at the distance of 100 as shown in Figure
2.1.

Venter (2010) has numerically investigated the semicircular microchannel to determine

the Nusselt number along the channel. The study has provided an equation to calculate
average local Nusselt number of internal flow as below.
qw Dh
Nu = - ) (11)
(Tw
Tb kf
IA Cp pVTf dAs
s

Tb = IA (12)
s

Cp pV dAs
 Cp Specific heat capacity

qw Averaged local wall heat flux

Tb Bulk fluid temperature

Tf Fluid temperature of selected cell

Tw Wall surface temperature

V Axial flow velocity

The graph of Nusselt number versus dimensionless axial distance will be plotted under
constant temperature boundary condition. The dimensionless axial distance can be
calculated by using the equation 13.
x (13)
X* =
Dh RePr

Pr Prandtl number

x Axial length from the channel entrance

x* Dimensionless axial distance

3.1.3 Computational Fluid Dynamics Methodology

ANSYS FLUENT is a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software which allows user
to solve different kind of flow problems with high complexity. It has the capabilities to
model flow with different fluid, investigate heat transfer or reactions taken place at an
objects. To date, it has been used by many companies to solve the Navier-Stoke equation
of fluid which derived from three equations, i.e. Conservation of mass, conservation of
momentum and conservation of energy equations as shown below.

Mass conservation equation

ap
. (pv ) = Sm (l4)
at
Momentum conservation equation

a
(pv ) . (pv v ) = p .( ) p (l5)
at
 T
2
= [( v v ) . v . I] (l6)

Energy equation

a
(pE) . (v (pE p)) = . Kef T hj j ( eff . v )
at
Sh (l7)
j
2 (l8)
p v
E =h
p 2
h = Yj hj (l9)
j

T (20)
h = Cp,j T
Tref

Tref is use as 298.l5 K (2l)

Sm Mass added to the continuous phase from the dispersed second phase and user-

define sources

p Static pressure

Stress tensor
pv Gravitational body force
External body forces

Molecular velocity
I Unit tensor
Kef Effective conductivity (K+Kt ) where Kt is turbulent conductivity

j
Diffusion flux of species J
 3.1.4 Mes
hing

ANSYS FLUENT solver uses an element-based Finite Volume Method (FVM) which
involves discretizing the spatial domain using a mesh. The purpose of mesh is to create
finite volumes which to be used to conserve mass, momentum and energy. To improve the
computational efficiency and accuracy, swept hexahedral mesh has been used for
discretizing model. The mesh was extruded from the inlet along the axial path of
serpentine
layout to produce the swept mesh as shown in Figure 3.2. All the cells were set to the
quadrilateral shape via mesh method. Edge division was used to specified the desired
number of division within the edge.

Figure 3.2. Mesh density on a cross-section

3.2 Scope

There are three parts in this section which the first part is to define the relevant
assumptions and boundary condition for simulation. The last two parts will be defining
the procedure of investigation of straight and serpentine microchannel.

3.2.1 Assumpt
ions

There are several assumptions have been made in the solver ANSYS FLUENT shown
below.
Heat conduction within the fluid is negligible since the convection heat transfer is the
dominant effect;
All fluid properties are assumed constant as there are no change in fluid density; and

Fluid exit temperature is set to 340K since most of the exchanger have an effectiveness
of around 80% (Fourie 2011).
3.2.2 Boundary Conditions

The boundary conditions are as follow:

Uniform wall temperature from inlet to outlet;

The wall temperature is set to 350K while the fluid temperature is set to 300K;
 The entrance of the microchannel is set to velocity inlet mode while the exit is set to
atmospheric pressure mode; and
Appropriate velocity is assigned based on the calculation of Reynolds number equation.

3.2.3 Straight Microchannel

Several planes are created at various distance downstream the channel in order to
determine the Nusselt numbers. The length of the channel will have to increase as Nusselt
number not reaching the constant value.

The convergence of simulation is required in order to obtain a realistic result. According

to (Fourie 2011), the length of channel has a direct effect on convergence values.
Therefore, the length must not be too long as the solution will not be converged. The
Nusselt numbers are considered constant once the difference between values are below
0.1%.

The values used for dynamic viscosity and density of water are 0.8623Ns/m2 and 996.56
kg/m3, respectively.

The initial conditions transitional microchannel with 10m hydraulic diameter is shown
in Table 3.

Table 3: The conditions applied for investigation of straight semicircular microchannel

Cross- Channel Hydraulic Working Reynolds Flow

section length diameter Fluid number velocity
Semi-
3.5mm 0.01mm Water 200 17.3m/s
circular

3.2.4 Serpentine
Microchannel
The serpentine microchannel is designed as shown in Figure3.1 so as the results will not
be affected by the entrance and the exit of the channel. The boundary condition is set to
constant wall temperature (T) boundary condition. The investigation is started by
determining the Nusselt number along serpentine microchannel which the numerical
results are used to determine the heat transfer enhancement factor. Various Reynolds
number are used as shown in Table 4. By increasing the Reynolds number from 50 to 200,
the effect of heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop penalty versus Reynolds number
can be obtained.
The values of parameters Rc /d and L/d are as shown below.
The value of half wavelength (L) is set to 0.0738mm and constant throughout the

investigation.

The ratio of parameter L/d is set equal to 4.5 with the diameter (d) equal to 0.0164mm.
The value of Rc /d is equal to 1. Therefore, radius of curvature is equal to the dimension
of diameter.

Table 4: Flow velocities at different Reynolds numbers

Semi-circular cross-section
Reynolds
25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200
number
Velocitie
2.158 4.316 6.474 8.632 10.790 12.948 15.106 17.264
s (m/s) 1 1 2 3 3 4 5 5

Figure 3.3 shows the points where Nusselt numbers are obtained. The interpretations of
points are shown in Table 5. The local Nusselt number at each point will be tabulated and
divided by the Nusselt number of straight microchannel by using the equation (5).
Besides, the pressure drop at each bend also investigated by using equation (6).
 16

Figure 3.3: Locations where the Nusselt number are calculated for Reynolds number
investigation
 Table 5: Interpretation of each point

Inlet of bend 1, 6, 11 and 16

Center of bend 2, 7, 12 and 17
Exit of bend 3, 8, 13 and 18
1 diameter length downstream of each bend 4, 9, 14 and 19
Center of straight sections 5, 10, 15 and 20

3.3 Chapter summary

There are two numerical investigations have to be done in this study. First one is the
investigation of straight channel with semicircular cross section. The purpose of this
investigation is to verify the Nusselt numbers are approximately equal to the theoretical
value. This also used to confirm the accuracy of SolidWorks Flow Simulation for
simulating microchannel flow conditions. The second investigation is the serpentine
microchannel with semicircular cross section. This investigation is the main purpose of
this study to investigate its heat transfer performance.

The methodology for Nusselt number calculation was given as shown in Equation 11 and
other related equations. This equation will be defined in SolidWorks before the simulation
is run. The Navier-Stoke Equations (14)- (21) shown in this chapter is used by ANSYS
FLUENT to solve the equation of conservation of mass, energy and momentum.

The boundary conditions and assumptions listed are explained and will be used in this
numerical investigation. For both straight and serpentine path layout, the wall temperature
will be set equally which is 350 K and fluid enters the channel at temperature of 300K.
The hydraulic diameter and cross section are similar for both path. The rest of the details
such as radius of curvature and half wavelength are explained in this chapter.
Chapter 4: Results and Discussion

In this chapter, the results of straight and serpentine channel for this study were presented,
discussed and compared to the theoretical results. The first section was about the
verification of straight channel which was the most important section before proceeding
to the next section. This was followed by the converged result of serpentine channel
Nusselt number which was used to determine the heat transfer enhancement at each bend.
Thereafter, the effect of Reynolds numbers on heat transfer enhancement and pressure
drop are shown graphically.

4.1 Straight
Channel

4.1.1 Numerical method

Instead of using CFX solver as demonstrated in numerous studies, Fluent solver has been
utilized for numerical investigation. This Ansys Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) was
also able to generate the desired results of straight transitional microchannel model. The
accuracy of numerical data is very dependent to the quality of mesh being used on the
model. Simply changing the coarse to fine in mesh sizing tab shouldnt lead to the desired
value. This will in turn causing great percentage error as compared to theoretical value.
Therefore, a mesh control of sizing was used in this study which is to create division on
each edge. As a result, more quadrilateral cells were created on both inlet and outlet of the
channel.

The quality of contour is based on the meshing method applied on the body. With proper
meshing method, the contour will be able to display the behavior of fluid flowing in
internal channel clearly. The contour that generated are as shown in Figure 4.3 and 4.4.

The length of the channel was designed to merely 3.5mm as it is sufficient for thermally
fully developed flow in the channel. Increasing the channel distance will consequence to
the establishment of thermal equilibrium where no heat transfers between wall surfaces
and flowing fluid. Then, the determination of Nusselt number will be undefined.
 4.1.2 Nusselt number of Transitional
microchannel

The Nusselt number obtained for straight transitional microchannel was about 3.567. As
comparing to the value 3.323 published by Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006), there is an
increase of 0.244 or 7.34% from the theoretical value. In Table 1, it shows that the Nusselt
number from numerous studies were in the range 3.221 to 3.323. If comparing to the
smallest value (3.221), there will be 10.74% increased.

One of the influencing factor of getting different value is the meshing method applied for
simulation. Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006) has utilized the ICEM CFD to create Hexa-
mesh or unstructured mesh which is apparently different from Ansys Meshing that applied
in this study.

Figure 4.1 and 4.2 shows the Nusselt number at different locations along the channel.

By inspecting both figures, the Nusselt number has reach its constant value right before
halfway of the channel, which is approximately 0.6mm from channel inlet. The Nusselt
number is the highest at the inlet, then gradually decreases until the constant value.

Nusselt number versus Channel distance

12
Nusselt number

10

6
 4 3.567

0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10

Channel length (mm)

Figure 4.1: The schematic shows the Nusselt number obtained versus channel length
 Nusselt number versus dimensionless axial distance
12

10
Nusselt number

4 3.567

0.001 0.01 0.1 1

Dimensionless axial distance

Figure 4.2: The schematic shows the Nusselt number obtained versus dimensionless
axial distance

From the Table 7.4 in Appendix, it shows the average bulk fluid temperature increases,
whilst the wall heat flux decreases throughout the channel. Since the wall temperature is
350K, the maximum bulk temperature of fluid can achieve is limited to 350K. However,
the channel distance was designed to avoid thermal equilibrium between wall and fluid
temperature.

Figure 4.3 and Figure 4.6 shows the temperature and velocity contour respectively.
In Figure 4.3(a), the temperature profile starts to develop from the channel entrance until
it reaches to the channel outlet. The change of temperature is obvious at the upstream of
channel, whilst the downstream shows almost to single concentration color. This is
because the bulk fluid temperature is close to wall surface temperature. Since heat transfer
do exist along the channel, the temperature profile keeps changes even the flow is fully
developed.

The velocity profile started to form at the channel entrance as shown in Figure 4.4. The
profile keeps growing towards the center of channel until it is fully developed. Unlike
temperature profile that keep growing throughout the channel, there are no changes have
noticed in velocity profile when it is fully developed. The velocity magnitude for each
layer remained constant until exiting the channel.

(b) (c)

(a)

Figure 4.3: Schematic shows the temperature boundary layer of internal channel. a) The
section view shows the development of temperature boundary layer from channel entrance.
b) The temperature contour of channel inlet. c) The temperature contour of channe outlet.
 (b) (c)

(a)

Figure 4.4: Schematic shows the velocity boundary layer of internal channel. a) The
section view shows the development of velocity boundary layer from the channel entrance.
b) The velocity contour at channel inlet. c) The velocity contour at channel outlet.
4.2 Serpentine Channel

4.2.1 Enhancement factor of serpentine channel

The mesh method applied in straight channel are reapplied to the serpentine channel. All
the cells on inlet and outlet sections are set to merely quadrilateral with no triangular cell.
Different Reynolds number with an increment of 25 are applied to the solver to compute
the average bulk fluid temperature and wall heat flux at the second unit of serpentine
channel. The Nusselt number at those 20 planes as shown in Figure 4.5 are divided by the
value of 3.567 which is the Nusselt number of straight channel in fully developed
condition.

Enhancement factor versus Proportional distance

6
B1 B2 B3 B4
Re=25
3 Re=50
19
14 Re=75
13 Re=100
18
4 9 10 Re=125
5 Re=150
20
8 Re=175

2 12
4 15
5 11
eNu

1
3 16
6

2 7 17

1
 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

Proportional
distance

Figure 4.5: Heat transfer enhancement as a function of proportional distance within the
transitional serpentine microchannel with Rc/d=1 and L/d=4.5 for T boundary condition.
The dashed lines indicate the positions of each bend.

Referring to the Figure 4.5, the effect of Reynolds number on fluid flow behavior is very
significant. With increasing Reynolds number, the enhancement factor along the
serpentine channel becomes more notable.

At lower Reynolds number, the enhancement of heat transfer in serpentine path compared
to straight path are slightly increased with no apparent peak value as shown in the Figure
From the Table 7.5 shown in Appendix, the average enhancement factor with Reynolds
number 25 is only 0.99. This is because the effect of secondary flow is not
significant as viscous forces are larger than inertial forces. Therefore, the Nusselt number
at each plane shows value closed to straight channel solution.

For Reynolds number 100, planes 3, 9, 14 and 18 shows the peak value of bend 1, 2, 3 and
4, respectively. By inspecting the curve, enhancement factor decreases dramatically right
after leaving the bends. This curve behavior obeys the theoretical flow of fluid of
serpentine channel as heat transfer decreases in straight section.

Since bend 1 and 3 are reinforcing bends, they show higher enhancement as compared to
bend 2 and 4. However, this condition is only applicable for Reynolds number until 150
as shown in Figure 4.5. Further increase of Reynolds number causes the flow to be
unsteady. In this case, bend 2 and 4 will illustrate higher enhancement as compared to
bend 1 and 3, which is theoretically not accurate.

According to the result reported by Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006) and Fourie (2011), the
Reynolds numbers that exceed 450 are tends to produce unsteady flow. However, in this
study, the flow turned unsteady with Reynolds number greater than 150. This shows that
by decreasing the hydraulic diameter, the allowable Reynolds number of fluid steady flow
is decreased.

Figure 4.6 shows the velocity profile within the central unit of serpentine channel. By
examining the contour, the behavior of fluid flow in each particular location can be
known.

Figure 4.7 shows the velocity contour of bends downstream locations. The rotation of
fluid at each bend are as shown in the figure.
Figure 4.6: Schematic shows the velocity contour of the serpentine central unit with
Reynolds number of 100 and uniform wall temperature boundary condition (T).

Ben Bend 2
d1
Aniti-clockwise Clockwise
 Clockwise Aniti-clockwise

Bend Bend 4
3

Figure 4.7: Speed contour at various bends downstream location for Reynolds number of
150.

From Figure 4.8, the velocity is found to be higher at bend 2 and bend 4. Since these
bends are performed as cancelling bends, the rotational direction of fluid that formed at
previous bend is disturbed which cause the formation of vortices at bends vicinity. By
inspecting
the Figure 4.8(b), the streamline might give a sense of vortices at cancelling bends that
prominent over reinforcing bends. Even with high vortices, bends 2 and 4 shows low heat
transfer enhancement than bends 1 and 3. Therefore, the heat transfer enhancement is not
dominated by the concentration of vortices, however, it is more influenced by the mixing
reaction at each bend. In other words, the vortices at cancelling bends is to support mixing
at reinforcing bends which consequence to greater enhancement factor.

b3

b4
(a) (b)

Figure 4.8: Schematic shows the velocity of fluid passing through each bend. (a) The
vector form of fluid movement within serpentine central section. (b) The streamlines that
show radial movement of fluid at bends region.

4.3 Effect of Reynolds number

The parametric table shown in Table 6 is the result of average heat transfer enhancement
with increasing Reynolds number.

Table 6: Results of the effect of Reynolds number on average heat transfer enhancement.

Reynolds number Average heat transfer enhancement (eNu)

 25 0.99
50 1.26
75 1.83
100 2.437
125 3.007
150 3.539
175 4.133
Figure 4.9 is the investigation result of the effect of variation of Reynolds number on heat
transfer enhancement within the central unit of serpentine channel. The result obtained
was absolutely agreed to the results published by Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006) and
Fourie (2011).

Average enhancement factor versus Reynolds number

4.5

4.0

3.5
Average eNu

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

Reynolds number

Figure 4.9: Graph of average heat transfer enhancement versus Reynolds number for
uniform wall temperature boundary condition.

By examining Figure 4.9, the average enhancement factor increases when increasing the
value of Reynolds number. This might due to the speed of transfer of momentum within
the channel. In other words, the velocity of fluid can affect the performance of heat
transfer at each bend as shown in Figure 4.5.

The effect of hydraulic diameter on heat transfer enhancement are as shown in Figure
4.10. It proven that not only the Reynolds number affecting the enhancement factor,
however, it is also affected by the size of hydraulic diameter. With lower hydraulic
diameter, the enhancement factor of serpentine channel tends to increase higher than larger
hydraulic diameter. For an instance, at Reynolds number equal to 200, the simulation
result is 75% larger than the value provided by Fourie (2011).
By analyzing the result between theoretical and simulation, the heat transfer enhancement
increases when hydraulic diameter decreases. Besides, the maximum Reynolds number
Average heat transfer enhancement
for steady flow also decreases by decreasing hydraulic diameter.

Average enhancement factor versus Reynolds number

6

Simulation with hydrauic diameter 0.01mm

Fourie (2011) with hydraulic diameter 1.222mm 4.9
5

3 2.792

1
40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220

Reynolds number

Figure 4.10: Comparison of simulation result with Fourie (2011) with different
hydraulic diameter.

Convection heat transfer coefficient (h) was also determined by using Equation (1). At
k]
Reynolds number 150, the calculated heat transfer coefficient was 768673.7l .
m2 -K

However, the heat transfer coefficient reported by Fourie (2011) at Reynolds number 400
k] . This indicated that, the convective heat transfer of transitional
was only 6731.45
m2 -K
microchannel was better than conventional microchannel.

From Figure 4.11, the pressure drop doesnt show any significant increase when
increasing Reynolds number. At Reynolds number 25, the pressure drop is about 0.8679,
whilst at Reynolds number 175, the pressure drop is approximately 1.1134. Therefore, the
pressure drop is only increase by 0.2455 from Reynolds number 25 to 175.

As comparing to the results by Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006), the pressure drop also
display the same phenomena as obtained in this investigation. From Figure 4.11, the
pressure drop from simulation has lower value than the pressure drop reported by Rosaguti,
Fletcher et al. (2006). At low Reynolds number (25-100), the pressure drop of straight
channel is larger than the serpentine path layout. From Reynolds number 125 onwards, the
pressure drop of serpentine layout is prominent over straight channel. Therefore, the
pressure drop is dominated by the Reynolds number.

From Figure 4.10 and Figure 4.11, we can conclude that low pressure drop is
accompanied with low heat transfer enhancement, and high pressure drop is accompanied
with high enhancement factor. Literally, both pressure drop and enhancement factor is the
result of velocity, where increasing the Reynolds number is the same sense of increasing
the velocity.

Pressure drop versus Reynolds number

1.5

Simulation with hydraulic diameter

Pressure Drop (e f)

1.4 0.01mm Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006)

1.3

1.2

1.1

1.0

0.9

0.8 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

Reynolds number

Figure 4.11: The effect of Reynolds number on pressure drop of serpentine channel.
4.4 Chapter
Summary

The verification of the straight transitional microchannel was seems to be successful with
minimal difference due to different meshing method being applied. At fully developed
flow condition, the Nusselt number value becomes constant as shown in Figure 4.1 and
Figure 4.2. The velocity profile keeps constant throughout the channel, whilst the
temperature profile keeps changing as convection of heat transfer occurring.

For serpentine microchannel, bends 2 and 4 act as cancelling bends, while bends 1 and 3
act as reinforcing bends. This was due to the heat transfer enhancement value being higher
in bends 1 and 3 as compared to bends 2 and 4. According to the simulation result,
element that dominate to higher enhancement factor is fluid mixing at bends vicinity.
Even though cancelling bends have higher vortices concentration, but, they have lower
enhancement factor than reinforcing bends. Therefore, the vortices that formed at
cancelling bends are to support effective mixing at reinforcing bends.

Reynolds number also demonstrate significant effect on the flow behavior. At higher
Reynolds number, the inertia forces become dominant over viscous forces which lead to
higher heat transfer enhancement at serpentine bends. However, at lower Reynolds
number, the enhancement factor at each serpentine bends tend to become straight channel
solution. This means that there will be negligible or no enhancement will occur at bends.

At lower hydraulic diameter, the average heat transfer enhancement of serpentine channel
tends to reach higher value at lower Reynolds number as shown in Figure 4.10. The
maximum Reynolds number that can lead to steady fluid flow is about 150 for transitional
serpentine microchannel. However, the maximum Reynolds number of steady flow shown
in Fourie (2011) and Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006) was about 450.

From the Figure 4.11, it shows that the pressure drop increases as Reynolds number
increases. This phenomena is exactly similar to the study done by Rosaguti, Fletcher et al.
(2006). The pressure drop was found to be smaller as compared to the value published by
Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006). This id due to the effect of hydraulic diameter on pressure
drop. Greater hydraulic diameter leading to higher pressure drop and vice versa as velocity
of fluid affected by hydraulic diameter.
Chapter 5: Conclusion

5.1 Introduction

Heat exchanger is a cooling mechanism that used to reduce excessive heat generated by
an application and in turn increase the performance. The compactness of a heat exchanger
was increasingly important nowadays as it not only to reduce the cost and materials,
however, it is also demanded for small application. Another benefit of compactness is that
it possesses higher heat transfer rate.

In this study, the effect of Reynolds number on heat transfer enhancement and pressure
drop on transitional serpentine microchannel were investigated. This is to investigate
whether a smaller hydraulic diameter of channel can perform better than a larger hydraulic
diameter channel. Therefore, Reynolds numbers were designed from the value 25 to 200
with an increment of 25. The enhancement factor of serpentine channel at each Reynolds
number were compared to the value reported by Fourie (2011). The pressure drop at each
Reynolds number were compared to values reported by Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006).

5.2 Conclusion

The investigation of the effect of Reynolds number on heat transfer enhancement and
pressure drop with single phase flow in transitional serpentine microchannel were
achieved.

5.2.1 Geometric parameters and boundary conditions

The geometrical parameters of serpentine layout involved half wavelength (L), diameter
Rc L

(d) and radius of curvature Rc = l and = 4.5 were the characteristic of

. serpentine
d d

path layout. The boundary condition used in this study was constant wall temperature. The
inlet of the channel was set to velocity inlet, whilst the channel outlet was set to pressure
outlet.

5.2.2 Effect of Reynolds number on enhancement factor

From the investigation, it was found that Reynolds numbers have significantly affect the
enhancement factor on serpentine channel. When Reynolds number increases, the heat
transfer enhancement factor at each serpentine bends increases. The bends 1 and 3 showed
higher peak than bends 2 and 4 at Reynolds number below 150. The flow becomes
unsteady for Reynolds number greater than 150. In the unsteady state, the enhancement
factor at bends 2 and 4 showed higher peak than bends 1 and 3.

5.2.3 Effect of Reynolds number on pressure

drop

The numerical values generated by the FLUENT solver has showed that pressure drop
increases when Reynolds number increases. However, the pressure drop is just slightly
increased from Reynolds number 25 to 175, which is only 0.2455. As comparing to the
pressure drop reported by Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006), it was increased by 0.43 within
the same range of Reynolds number.

5.2.4 Comparison between numerical result and theoretical

results

The comparison was make in order to identify the differences of enhancement factor and
pressure drop between transitional microchannel and microchannel. The Figures 4.10 and
4.11 shown in section 4.3 have demonstrated the differences which caused by hydraulic
diameter. For the serpentine enhancement factor, it was found that the enhancement factor
was higher than the theoretical value at same Reynolds number, whilst, the pressure drops
were reported lower than the theoretical values at same Reynolds number. Therefore, by
decreasing the hydraulic diameter, enhancement factor increases at bends and pressure
drop decreases.

5.3 Contribution of this work

The major contribution of this investigation is to increase the compactness of

microchannel heat exchanger (MCHE). Through this investigation, it was found the
enhancement factor at bends can be increased by reducing the hydraulic diameter. Hence,
it is recommended to design a serpentine transitional microchannel in small application in
the future.

Besides, this work also contributes another simulation method which was setting channel
outlet as pressure outlet. As suggested by Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006), the channel
outlet was set equally as the inlet conditions such as u, v, w and T in order to produce
fully developed condition.
5.4 Scope and limitation of this work

The scope of current research is to investigate the effect of heat transfer enhancement and
pressure drop in serpentine transitional microchannel. This is to determine whether smaller
hydraulic diameter can have same or better performance than larger hydraulic diameter.

In order to achieve the goal, several assumptions have been made which heat conduction
within the fluid is negligible since the convection heat transfer is the dominant effect; all
fluid properties are assumed constant; and fluid exit temperature is set to 340K.

The limitation of this research is that the cost of fabrication is too high. Therefore,
ANSYS FLUENT was used to the simulate and determine the performance of heat
transfer.

5.5 Recommendation of future work

From the result of straight channel Nusselt number, one may found that the Nusselt number
was not perfectly match to the theoretical value reported by Rosaguti, Fletcher et al.
(2006). Meshing method applied on a model consist of significant effect in obtaining
desired result. It is not an easy task to create a perfect quality mesh of a model as it
requires the knowledge and understanding of meshing. Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006) has
applied the method of mesh by using the ICEM CFD which the quality can be
improved. There are several recommendations which have considered for future
investigation on transitional microchannel as shown below.

I. Improving the quality of mesh by using ICEM CFD to obtain a more accurate
result of straight channel Nusselt number.
II. Since the methodology used in this investigation is to set channel exit as
pressure outlet, it is recommended to apply the methodology introduced by
Rosaguti, Fletcher et al. (2006), then compare the results with current finding.
III. Instead of using the Fluent Solver, it is recommended to use the CFX solver for
numerical investigation and compare the results in this study.
IV. Investigate the thermo-hydraulic performance of different cross-section and path
shape of transitional microchannel and compare the enhancement factor and
pressure drop reported in this study.
V. Using different boundary condition such as constant wall heat flux.
5.6 Concluding remarks of this
study

The research question of this study is to investigate the effect of Reynolds number on heat
transfer coefficient and pressure drop on single phase serpentine transitional microchannel
with hydraulic diameter of 10m. Therefore, the objective of this study is to design a
serpentine path layout and compare its Nusselt number to fully developed Nusselt number
in straight channel with Fluent software. The results showed that the Nusselt number of
serpentine layout is higher at bends 1 and 3 at Reynolds number below 150. The Nusselt
number of enhancement factor increases when Reynolds number increases. The pressure
drop also increases when increasing the value of Reynolds number. Thus, this finding
satisfy the research question and objectives of this study.
6.0 References

Al-Obaidi, S. 2011, Second Law Analysis of a Multiport Serpentine Microchannel Heat

Exchanger, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

P, I.F. & DeWitt, D.P. 2002, Fundamentals of heat and mass transfer, 5th edn, John Wiley
& Sons, New York.

Fourie, J. H 2011, Thermal performance of periodic serpentine channels with semi

circular and triangular crosssections, North-West University.

Geyer, P. E., et al. 2007, Laminar flow and heat transfer in a periodic trapezoidal channel
with semi-circular cross-section, International journal of heat and mass transfer 50(17):
3471-3480.

Karale, C.M., Bhagwat, S.S. & Ranade, V.V. 2013, "Flow and heat transfer in serpentine
channels", AIChE Journal, vol. 59, no. 5, pp. 1814-1827.

Rosaguti, N.R., Fletcher, D.F. & Haynes, B.S. 2006, "Laminar flow and heat transfer in a
periodic serpentine channel with semi-circular cross-section", International Journal of
Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 49, no. 17, pp. 2912-2923.

Rosaguti, N.R., Fletcher, D.F. & Haynes, B.S. 2007, "Low-Reynolds number heat transfer
enhancement in sinusoidal channels", Chemical Engineering Science, vol. 62, no. 3, pp.
694-702.

SHAH, R.K. 1972, Laminar Flow Forced Convection Heat Transfer and Flow Friction in
Straight and Curved Ducts, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
Venter, J. C 2010, The optimal hydraulic diameter of semicircular and triangular shaped
channels for compact heat exchangers, North-West University, viewed 14 April 2016.

Xiong, R. 2007, Single- and two-phase pressure -driven flow transport dynamics in
micro- channels, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
7.0 Appendix

7.1 Outline of Semester 2 Plan

Week 1 For the first week, I continue the previous task which is to do
simulation on straight channel. This basically is the initial stage of
verification of result. If the result obtained is verified, the serpentine
microchannel can be continued.
Week 2 Recall some theories that stated in the literature review.

Continue simulation task of straight channel. If the result

obtained still unable to verify, then I will have to utilize the
contingency plan to solve the problem, else it wont be enough
time to complete the investigation.
Week 3 Update the methodology chapter as there are any changes on
method of investigation.
If the verification failed in second week, I will have to learn Ansys
as soon as possible. Several tutorial will have to search and learn in
order to get used of it. This will proceed until the end of week 4
before second contingency plan is applied.
Week 4 Update the methodology section as there are any successful method
have been used.
If the verification of straight channel is achieved by using Ansys,
then, I should start to investigate the serpentine microchannel
immediately by using the method planed in last semester. If the
verification still failed, then I will have to use the last contingency
plan which is to ignore the verification of straight channel.
Week 5 In this week, no matter the verification is fail or successful,
numerical investigation of serpentine microchannel must be started.
In the case of failure to get verified result from both CFD software,
SolidWorks will be preferred to do the rest of simulation. While, if
the Ansys able to get desired result, then the rest of simulation will
be accomplished by using Ansys.
Week 6 If Ansys is preferred at the end of week 5, then the method of
investigation section of methodology chapter will have to be
corrected to Ansys. This basically the governing equation part of
the chapter.
At the end of this week, all numerical data must be obtained and to
be analyzed in following week.
Week 7 The chapter of result have to be created to tabulate all the numerical
data obtained from simulation.
The graph of heat transfer enhancement factor is plotted by using
the equation (5).
Week 8 Update the Result chapter by tabulating the numerical data obtained.

All the necessary graphs are plotted such as the heat transfer
enhancement and pressure drop versus Reynolds number graph.
The schematic drawings are included in this chapter such as velocity
contour and temperature contour of serpentine microchannel.
Week 9 In this week, the numerical data obtained will be compared to the
published result. This comparison only valid if the verification is
successful else the comparison doesnt make sense.
Since the study is about the transitional microchannel, therefore the
heat transfer enhancement will be compared to the mini-
microchannel or larger. This is to determine the effect of hydraulic
diameter on heat transfer and potentiality to increase the
compactness of heat exchanger.
Week 10 Make discussion and conclusion of the result obtained in this
numerical study.
Week 11 Make recommendation of the study.

Preparing for the entire report by referring to the marking rubric and
make improvement to the report.
Week 12 The entire report will has to be ready for submission in this week.
Week 13 Preparing for presentation.
7.3 Investigation Methodology

Start

Simulation of
straight channel

Verification
of data

Contingency No Nusselt number No Contingency

Plan 2 verified? Plan 1

Yes
 Simulation of
serpentine channel

Tabulating
data

End
7.3 Gantt Chart

MEE40008 MEE40009
Weeks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Project Activities
Objective 1: Research and Study
Task 1.1: Research on serpentine microchannel
Task 1.2: Study the Nusselt Number
Task 1.3: Study the effect of reynolds number
Task 1.4: Study the flow behaviour of fluid
Task 1.5: Study the effect of geometric variation
Follow-up on Objective 1
Objective 2: Simulation of microchannel
Task 2.1: Simulation of straight channel
Task 2.2: Simulation of serpentine channel
Task 2.4: Tabulating data and calculation
Follow-up on Objective 2
Objective 3: To make comparison
Task 3.1: Comparing data
Task 3.2: Results
Task 3.3: Discussion
Task 3.4: Conclusion
Task 3.5 Recommendation
Follow-up on Objective 3

Project Milestones MEE40008 MEE40009

1. Selection of research topic
2. Decision of cross-section
3. Comlpetion of research plan
4. Report submission
5. Completion of Reflective Journal
6. Completion of Workbook (MEE40008)
(MEE40008)
7. Completion of numerical simulation
8. Analysing data
9. Completion of Reflective Journal
10. Completion of Workbook (MEE40009)
(MEE40009)
7.4 Results for straight transitional microchannel

Table 7.1: Simulation result of straight channel semi-circular cross-section

Distance Dimensionless Wall heat Nusselt

Temperature
(mm) axial distance (x*) flux number
0.0 0.001631321 325 15467320 10.1591592
0.0
2 0.003262643 325.002 11872885 7.79890634
8
0.0
4 0.004893964 325.0115 10237030 6.72692361
3
0.0
6 0.006525285 325.0365 9213236. 6.06023480
3
0.
8 0.008156607 325.0845 8483511.
5 5.59099048
7
0.
1 0.024469821 327.1 55624492 4.03302141
7
0.
3 0.040783034 330.492 4458197 3.75257357
8
0.
5 0.057096248 333.847 3607291 3.66699816
3
1
7 0.081566069 338.1195 2615623.5 3.61512424
4
1. 0.097879282 340.396 52103778. 3.59691757
4
1.
2 0.13050571 343.7765 1355940.4
1 3.57757403
5
2
6 0.163132137 345.986 5872604.0 3.56962474
7
2. 0.195758564 347.4155 561364.7
5 3.56657457
5
2.
4 0.212071778 347.9265 450305.1
5 3.56603483
4
2.
6 0.236541599 348.51 323467.3
5 73.5647320
3.
9 0.261011419 348.9295 232369.54
5 3.56430814
4
3.
2 0.28548124 349.231 5166843.3 3.56258570
8
5 7 5
7.5 Results of serpentine transitional microchannel

Table 7.2: Simulation result of serpentine channel with Reynolds number 25.

Reynolds number = 25
Temperature Wall Heat Fux
Planes Max Min Ave Max Min Ave NU Re=2
1 350 345.04 347.52 104932 11724. 530522. 3.5190 0.9865
5
2 350 345.72
9 347.86 093045 10267.
45 2 470360.
1 3.6107
32 1.0122
52
3 350 346.11
2 348.05
1 85381
4 10028.
5 431919.
8 3.6520
96 1.0238
78
4 350 346.34
6 348.17
8 80892
0 6865.0
4 407894.
2 3.6629
44 1.0269
42
5 350 346.96
3 348.48
15 65210
4 5812.3
5 328957.
5 3.5571
89 0.9972
1
6 350 347.45
3 348.72
15 54672
3 3790.2
7 275258.
7 3.5491
97 0.9949
52
7 350 347.67
3 348.83
65 48543
7 3546.3
6 244489.
6 3.4593
53 0.9698
97
8 350 347.94
9 348.97
95 41212
2 5171.3
8 208648.
2 3.3408
72 0.9366
27
9 350 348.05
9 349.02
45 39531
5 5049.9
7 200183.
2 3.3852
86 0.9490
09
1 350 348.24
8 349.12
9 36554
7 4513.9 185027.
5 3.4544
57 0.9684
49
1
0 350 348.52
1 349.26
05 31236
1 3408.5
5 157887.
5 3.5201
83 0.9868
56
1
1 350 348.68
7 349.34
35 28419
6 3118.4
8 143657.
3 3.5958
17 1.0080
57
1
2 350 348.82
8 349.41
4 25860
6 3283.6
9 130945.
2 3.6723
9 1.0295
99
1
3 350 348.89
9 349.44
45 24675
7 2095.1
6 124424.
3 3.7012
65 1.0376
39
1
4 350 349.04
6 349.52
8 20598
3 1819.9
4 103900.
1 3.5729
47 1.0016
36
1
5 350 349.23
5 349.61
25 16368
1 1120.9
6 82401.
5 3.5560
5 0.9969
68
1
6 350 349.31
9 349.65
95 14443
3 1058.8
4 72748.
97 3.4625
32 0.9707
25
1
7 350 349.39 349.69
5 12159
9 1640.1
8 61619.
94 3.3448
04 0.9377
05
1
8 350 349.42
5 349.71
75 11627
8 1457.9 58868.
05 3.3798
17 0.9475
11
2
9 350 349.50
8 349.75
4 10442
9 1275.6
3 52849.
47 3.4781
65 0.9750
37
0 1Average
05Heat Transfer
3 Enhancement
7 34 77 0.9878
99
77
 Table 7.3: Simulation result of serpentine channel with Reynolds number 50.

Reynolds number
Temperature = 50 Wall Heat Fux
Planes Max Min Ave Max Min Ave NU Re=5
1 350 334.14 342.07 306105 44703. 155287 3.2171 0.9019
0
2 350 335.47
8 342.73
4 377476
0 48913.
8 191183
7 4.3229
08 1.2119
09
3 350 336.31
6 343.15
8 536382
0 32290.
6 269805
7 6.4737
21 1.8148
21
4 350 336.75
3 343.37
65 532227
0 22067.
5 267216
5 6.6275
4 1.8580
98
5 350 338.30
9 344.15
95 330870
0 19295.
1 166399
9 4.6726
92 1.3099
3
6 350 339.47
5 344.73
25 286776
0 11971.
4 143986
8 4.4931
71 1.2596
72
7 350 340.02
6 345.01
8 202201
0 13527.
5 101776
6 3.3504
8 0.9392
53
8 350 340.76
4 345.38
2 193150
0 31778.
4 981639.
9 3.4908
67 0.9786
96
9 350 341.05
5 345.52
25 218681
0 30107.
3 2110845 4.0677
22 1.1403
44
1 350 341.54
1 345.77
55 199264
0 27247.
6 100994
9 3.9246
83 1.1002
93
1
0 350 342.19
9 346.09
45 155876
0 21911.
5 790335.
4 3.3237
58 0.9318
68
1
1 350 342.75
1 346.37
55 184898
0 26537.
8 937758.
9 4.2478
55 1.1908
07
1
2 350 343.19 346.59
5 265172
0 17599.
7 9133466 6.4419
18 1.8059
66
1
3 350 343.40
6 346.70
8 273271
0 11011.
7 137186
0 6.8344
74 1.9160
92
1
4 350 344.09
8 347.04
4 180446
0 9867.6
3 907163.
1 5.0486
8 1.4153
3
1
5 350 344.78
9 347.39
95 142364
0 5813.7
2 714726.
8 4.5043
21 1.2627
69
1
6 350 345.12
9 347.56
45 096772 6689.8
4 487206.
9 3.2814
46 0.9199
83
1
7 350 345.50
4 347.75
2 100978
3 17027.
7 513403.
4 3.7542
22 1.0525
39
1
8 350 345.66
9 347.83
45 106876
0 14286.
3 541523.
7 4.0986
97 1.1490
08
2
9 350 345.91
1 347.95
05 091375 12658.
7 463204.
4 3.7275
44 1.0449
45
0 9Average
95Heat Transfer
0 Enhancement
8 4 1 1.2602
99
16
 Table 7.4: Simulation result of serpentine channel with Reynolds number 75.

Reynolds number
Temperature = 75 Wall Heat Fux
Planes Max Min Ave Max Min Ave NU Re=7
1 350 329.34 339.67 486428 89761. 247702 3.9383 1.1041
5
2 350 330.52
5 340.26 773356
25 0 70433.
5 390199
1 6.5796
76 1.8445
14
3 350 331.61
4 340.80
2 120135
0 43905.
4 602870
7 10.768
05 3.0188
77
4 350 332.55
4 341.27
7 106945
00 30043.
6 536227
3 10.094
35 2.8298
83
5 350 334.54
4 342.27
7 630944
00 226476 316795
2 6.7316
05 1.8872
44
6 350 335.87
5 342.93
25 473880
0 15498. 237714
8 5.5253
75 1.5490
09
7 350 336.58
1 343.29
55 332277
0 20149.
7 167146
9 4.0930
24 1.1474
11
8 350 337.58
9 343.79
45 416611
0 81419.
2 212376
0 5.6178
54 1.5749
78
9 350 337.97
5 343.98
25 457482
0 357598 231620
5 6.3235
79 1.7727
59
1 350 338.19
1 344.09 381882
55 0 51342. 193508
9 5.3828
5 1.5090
92
1
0 350 338.88
4 344.44
7 277506
0 48134.
3 141159
1 4.1714
11 1.1694
58
1
1 350 339.33
7 344.66
35 405004
0 49628.
3 204983
7 6.3096
99 1.7689
7
1
2 350 340.02
1 345.01
55 635778
0 27284.
2 319253
4 10.510
85 2.9466
05
1
3 350 340.47
5 345.23
25 601571
0 16685.
6 301619
2 10.399
78 2.9154
73
1
4 350 341.44
5 345.72
75 370156
0 15033.
1 185829
8 7.1360
38 2.0005
42
1
5 350 342.46
8 346.23
4 256270
0 18341.6 128552
7 5.6035
85 1.5709
85
1
6 350 342.80
6 346.40
3 172095
0 11179. 866064.
1 3.9536
88 1.1083
53
1
7 350 343.34
6 346.67
3 240957
0 838529 9122405 6.0440 1.6944
82
1
8 350 343.50
9 346.75
45 241390
0 29407. 122165
0 6.1770
04 1.7317
22
2
9 350 343.74
5 346.87
25 188958
0 25365.
5 495747 5.0262
58 1.4090
24
0 4Average
2 Heat Transfer
0 Enhancement
9 3 31 1.8276
92
79
 Table 7.5: Simulation result of serpentine channel with Reynolds number 100.

Reynolds number
Temperature = 100Wall Heat Fux
Planes Max Min Ave Max Min Ave NU Re=10
1 350 327.45 338.72 789235 14370 401802 5.8521 1.6406
0
2 350 328.29
2 339.14
6 119228
0 81623.
8 600221
9 9.0828
81 2.5463
45
3 350 329.41
8 339.70
9 167549
00 50225.
7 840256
2 13.407
94 3.7588
68
4 350 330.34
9 340.17
95 153960
00 37522.
9 771676
3 12.893
81 3.6146
49
5 350 333.23
5 341.61
25 955819
00 36575.
9 479738
1 9.3997
62 2.6352
95
6 350 334.83
9 342.41
95 666372
0 20441.
4 334208
3 7.2365
68 2.0287
03
7 350 335.34
3 342.67 463717
65 0 28840.
2 233300
1 5.2284
23 1.4657
42
8 350 336.41
6 343.20
3 701887
0 12120
4 357003
5 8.6296
41 2.4193
81
9 350 4336.7 7343.35 719819
0 77674.
1 363793
6 8.9828
59 2.5183
04
1 350 336.86 343.43 569681
0 70738. 288377
1 2 7.2117
81 2.0218
29
1
0 350 337.23
8 343.61
4 468175
0 86968.
4 238435
4 6.1318
9 1.7190
08
1
1 350 337.61 343.80
5 646391
0 164437 326417
9 8.6533
77 2.4259
57
1
2 350 338.25
2 344.12
6 825880
0 33391. 414609
4 11.597
59 3.2512
49
1
3 350 338.72
9 344.36
95 871926
0 21647.
5 437045
6 12.733
03 3.5697
01
1
4 350 340.19
8 345.09
4 598206
0 21752.
8 300190
4 10.053
22 2.8184
28
1
5 350 341.38
4 345.69
7 372744
0 11600.
9 186952
6 7.1275
52 1.9981
79
1
6 350 341.77
6 345.88
3 252050
0 17008.
1 126875
0 5.0652
12 1.4200
81
1
7 350 342.35
4 346.17
7 420210
0 53730.
6 212791
4 9.1385
57 2.5619
33
1
8 350 342.50
3 346.25
65 382625
0 42008.
9 193412
5 8.4702
22 2.3746
63
2
9 350 342.64
1 346.32
05 306688
0 36562.
2 155172
9 6.9314
22 1.9432
07
0 8Average
4 Heat Transfer
0 Enhancement
8 1 2.4366
02
06
 Table 7.6: Simulation result of serpentine channel with Reynolds number 125.

Reynolds number
Temperature = 125Wall Heat Fux
Planes Max Min Ave Max Min Ave NU Re=12
1 350 325.66 337.83 114962 16882 583251 7.8721 2.2069
5
2 350 326.75
8 338.37
4 158598
00 89177.
6 797448
3 11.267 3.1587
25
3 350 327.56
7 338.78
85 212230
00 61275.
8 106421
9 15.574
39 4.3663
86
4 350 328.08 339.04 209487
00 53935.
6 105013
38 15.738
67 4.4123
21
5 350 329.81
8 339.90
4 124283
00 55877.
4 624208
18 10.157
9 2.8477
64
6 350 331.22
9 340.61
95 861008
00 29183.
4 431963
9 7.5569
81 2.1185
17
7 350 332.51
8 341.25
4 582937
0 43275.
4 293632
2 5.5138
91 1.5457
84
8 350 334.28
1 342.14
55 108247
0 14452
5 548461
3 11.462
06 3.2134
83
9 350 334.43
6 342.21
3 104068
00 93937.
3 525036
2 11.080
3 3.1064
29
1 350 334.73
9 342.36 106319
95 00 87758.
2 535982
9 11.533
64 3.2333
32
1
0 350 335.37
8 342.68
9 754553
00 12296
4 383424
9 8.6104
26 2.4139
23
1
1 350 335.90
6 342.95
8 907831
0 75642.
0 457697
5 10.663
61 2.9894
22
1
2 350 336.55
4 343.27
2 121872
0 41040.
3 611412
6 14.935
39 4.1871
57
1
3 350 336.89
6 343.44
8 123421
00 31311.
6 618670
0 15.500
45 4.3454
17
1
4 350 337.71
2 343.85
6 816870
00 34735.
6 410171
6 10.962
14 3.0732
29
1
5 350 338.73
2 344.36
6 507659
0 17292.
1 254694
8 7.4277
19 2.0823
23
1
6 350 339.60
9 344.80
95 332876
0 26788.
3 167777
1 5.3000
05 1.4858
4
1
7 350 340.51
4 345.25
2 674896
0 67386.
6 340817
4 11.795
5 3.3068
56
1
8 350 340.60
1 345.30
55 629961
0 53990.
8 317680
3 11.107
43 3.1138
22
2
9 350 340.87
7 345.43
35 577838
0 47880.
5 291313
0 10.482
04 2.9386
32
0 3Average
65Heat Transfer
0 Enhancement
5 0 01 3.0073
07
13
 Table 7.7: Simulation result of serpentine channel with Reynolds number 150.

Reynolds number
Temperature = 150Wall Heat Fux
Planes Max Min Ave Max Min Ave NU Re=15
1 350 323.83 336.91 148095 19070 750010 9.4125 2.6387
0
2 350 324.84
2 337.42
6 201336
00 798781 101161
4 13.206
96 3.7024
99
3 350 325.72
4 337.86
2 265213
00 78543. 132999
91 17.993
51 5.0444
14
4 350 326.13
6 338.06
3 248089
00 74925.
1 124419
22 17.119
7 4.7993
91
5 350 327.34
2 338.67
6 154004
00 77077.
5 773873
13 11.216
21 3.1445
31
6 350 328.53
2 339.26
1 108524
00 37836.
6 544511
9 8.3296
6 2.3352
48
7 350 329.86
2 339.93
6 692391 60966.
00 5 349243
8 5.6962
82 1.5969
07
8 350 331.65
5 340.82
25 153713
0 16857
3 776993
8 13.906
6 3.8986
33
9 350 331.87
1 340.93
55 162860
00 10903
2 819751
6 514.849 4.1628
53
1 350 332.59 341.29
5 161708
00 10292
5 813686
8 15.351 4.3037
82
1
0 350 333.59
3 341.79
65 103666
00 14734
2 525697
1 10.520
32 2.9494
06
1
1 350 334.11 342.05
5 120290
00 83639.
2 605632
1 12.519
58 3.5097
2
1
2 350 334.78
3 342.39
65 158593
00 52016.
2 795565
0 17.174
29 4.8147
52
1
3 350 335.08
7 342.54
35 152444
00 44134.
9 764426
8 16.829
1 4.7180
18
1
4 350 335.66
3 342.83
15 103003
00 49655.
5 517497
7 11.853
34 3.3229
66
1
5 350 336.54
2 343.27
1 660362
00 23011.
2 331331
8 8.0882
12 2.2675
94
1
6 350 337.32
7 343.66
35 404018
0 39125.
8 203965
6 5.2855
84 1.4817
31
1
7 350 338.38
7 344.19
35 990335
0 80563.
7 499195
3 14.118
42 3.9579
89
1
8 350 338.57
8 344.28
4 106532
0 64738.
5 535896
7 15.409
11 4.3200
78
2
9 350 339.17
9 344.58
95 888425
00 58014.
1 447113
9 13.559
55 3.8013
29
0 1Average
55Heat Transfer
0 Enhancement
6 2 44 3.5385
58
3
 Table 7.8: Simulation result of serpentine channel with Reynolds number 175.

Reynolds number
Planes Temperature = 175Wall Heat Fux
Max Min Ave Max Min Ave NU Re=17
1 350 322.57 336.28 179888 20628 909754 10.892 3.0535
5
2 350 323.85 336.92
5 251330
00 11199
4 126224
2 15.852
08 4.4440
7
3 350 324.75 337.37
5 312098
00 96114.
6 156529
98 20.365
08 5.7092
94
4 350 325.22
8 337.61
9 276346
00 93363.
5 138639
57 18.374
04 5.1512
92
5 350 326.22
1 338.11
05 180949
00 795257 909507
82 12.562
56 3.5217
64
6 350 327.21
3 338.60
15 129910
00 44473. 651773
9 9.3958
1 2.6341
54
7 350 328.18
9 339.09
95 773967 81658.
00 7 391066
7 5.8871
64 1.6504
08
8 350 330.04
5 340.02
25 205878
0 18713
5 103874
4 17.092
9 4.7918
6
9 350 330.58
2 340.29
1 229124
00 11772
5 115150
68 19.475
49 5.4600
39
1 350 331.52
3 340.76
15 213777
00 11105
6 107443
63 19.094
87 5.3531
14
1
0 350 332.49
1 341.24
05 130284
00 16328
8 659584
79 12.373
82 3.4689
87
1
1 350 332.97
4 341.48
7 154070
00 88545.
7 774777
4 14.948
6 4.1908
1
1
2 350 333.68
9 341.84 191350
95 00 64080.
4 959954
3 19.321
74 5.4168
43
1
3 350 334.06
4 342.03
2 177054
00 55938.
3 888066
0 18.302
88 5.1310
44
1
4 350 334.56
5 342.28
25 121090
00 62473.
2 608573
9 12.946
33 3.6296
14
1
5 350 335.29
3 342.64
15 804830
00 27293.
9 403779
7 9.0157
82 2.5275
09
1
6 350 336.00
2 343.00
6 470180
0 54588.
6 237819
7 5.5798
85 1.5643
54
1
7 350 337.01
3 343.50
15 134039
0 89431.
1 674666
4 17.068
82 4.7850
07
1
8 350 337.43
9 343.71
95 150932
00 70500.
9 758185
6 19.816
44 5.5554
96
2
9 350 5338.1 344.05
75 118778
00 63509.
5 597065
0 16.477
43 4.6193
89
0 Average Heat Transfer
00 Enhancement
6 5 36 4.1329
9
32
 Table 7.9: Simulation result of serpentine channel with Reynolds number 200.

Reynolds number = 200

Temperature Wall Heat Fux
Planes Max Min Ave Max Min Ave NU Re=20
1 350 323.39 336.69 206578 30448 104811 12.935 3.6265
0
2 350 324.55
1 337.27 299548
55 00 16911
7 150619
44 19.440
79 5.4501
17
3 350 325.54
6 337.77
8 342626
00 13788
9 172002
60 23.097
56 6.4752
15
4 350 325.85
4 337.92
2 315886
00 13688
8 158627
44 21.574
34 6.0484
83
5 350 326.67
4 338.33
7 200513
00 14333
0 100973
40 14.213
75 3.9847
29
6 350 327.32 338.66
5 138727
00 65223.
4 696896
17 10.093
6 2.8297
48
7 350 329.07
6 339.53
3 105769
00 16801 537245
8 2 8.4330
75 2.3641
6
8 350 330.62
8 340.31
9 236149
00 24461
6 119297
8 20.222
08 5.6692
74
9 350 330.68
6 340.34
3 281196
00 14247
4 141310
57 24.021
04 6.7344
02
1 350 331.70
1 340.85 254169
05 00 13858
7 127777
39 22.935
61 6.4299
02
1
0 350 332.67
4 341.33
2 154533
00 22023
4 783676
42 14.852
63 4.1638
49
1
1 350 333.21
2 341.60
6 192211
00 12591
7 967350
9 18.928
56 5.3066
8
1
2 350 334.00
7 342.00
85 206414
00 91370.
7 103663
9 21.289
98 5.9684
94
1
3 350 334.10
9 342.05
45 194717
00 82375.
3 977703
85 20.202
45 5.6638
47
1
4 350 334.59
7 342.29
35 131170
00 93497.
9 660524
8 14.080
92 3.9473
4
1
5 350 335.19
4 342.59
7 848956
00 439402 426448
9 9.4601
3 2.6521
79
1
6 350 336.31
6 343.15
8 703448
0 11969 357708
1 8.5828
89 2.4061
42
1
7 350 337.19
3 343.59
65 160100
0 11625
2 806312
6 20.685
95 5.7992
94
1
8 350 337.36
9 343.68
95 187513
00 86876.
7 941908
9 24.472
8 6.8607
16
2
9 350 338.26 344.13 143613
00 683954 722262
8 20.219
28 5.6685
47
0 9Average
45 Heat Transfer
00 Enhancement
7 61 4.9024
21
82