NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF FLUID FLOW IN

MICROTUBE
Project Report submitted in partial fulfilment of
The requirements for the degree of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Of
MAULANA ABUL KALAM AZAD UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
By
NAME MAKAUT ROLL NO

PREMANSHU PREM 10900714067

AKASH KUMAR VIDYARTHI 10900714004

Under the guidance of

ASST. prof. AMRENDRA KUMAR

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank and express our gratitude towards our supervisor Asst. Prof.
Amrendra Kumar for his extensive support throughout this project work. We are
greatly indebted to him for giving us the opportunity to work with him and for his
belief in us during the hard time in the course of this work. His valuable suggestions
and constant encouragement helped us to complete the project work successfully.
Working under him has indeed been a great experience for us.
We in a group of two members also co-operated with each other and have tried our best
to prepare a successful project.

Date: Submitted by:

AKASH KUMAR VIDYARTHI

PREMANSHU PREM
 ABSTRACT

Three-dimensional fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena inside micro-tube is

investigated. The steady, laminar flow and heat transfer equations are solved
using a finite-volume method.

Numerical analysis has been made on a circular micro-tube of a finite length to

look at fluid flow and the results are shown in the form of velocity variations and
pressure variations along the length of the micro-channel and variations from
centre of the micro-channel to the boundary of the cannel.

The friction factor is also predicted in this study. It was found that the heat input
lowers the frictional losses, particularly at lower Reynolds numbers.
INTRODUCTION

MICROCHANNEL
 In MICROTECHNOLOGY
microchannel is a channel with
a hydraulic diameter below 1mm

 Basically used in fluid

controls and heat transfer
in micro heat exchanger
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The purpose of this project is to achieve dimensional numerical simulations of
simultaneously developing internal convective flow through a micro-channel, treating the
substrate thickness, flow Reynolds number and the thermal conductivity of the substrate
and the fluid. Combination of isothermal condition and constant heat flux is applied at
different section of the microtube, away from the fluid-solid interface, as in real time
solutions. The parametric study reveals that depending on geometry considerations, flow
parameters and thermo-physical properties of fluid-solid combination, conjugate heat
transfer effects must be accounted for, to correctly estimate the local Nusselt number.
This numerical research is focused on micro-channel heat transfer and fluid flow is
presented in paper. Diameter of the micro-tube is 150 micrometer and flow regime is
laminar with Re-number 200 and 300. The working fluid is air and tube material is stainless
steel.
CFD (Computational
fluid dynamics)
 Branch of fluid mechanics
 Uses numerical analysis and data
structures to solve and analyse problems
that involve fluid flows.
 Computers are used to perform the
calculations related to fluid flows and heat
transfer
 With high-speed supercomputers, better
solutions can be achieved
ANSYS
 ANSYS Mechanical is a finite element
analysis tool for structural analysis, including
linear, nonlinear and dynamic studies.

 It also includes thermal analysis and coupled-

physics capabilities

 Involve acoustics, piezoelectric, thermal–

structural and thermo-electric analysis
THEORITICAL ANALYSIS

HEAT TRANSER
 Discipline of thermal engineering that concerns
the generation, use, conversion, and exchange
of thermal energy (heat) between physical
systems.

 It is classified into various mechanisms, such

as thermal conduction, thermal
convection, thermal radiation, and transfer of
energy by phase changes.
Modes of heat transfer
CONDUCTION
• Conduction is a mode of heat transfer
through solids or stationery fluids
.
• Require medium to conduct

• Follows Fourier’s law of heat conduction

CONVECTION

• Convection is a mode of
heat transfer in fluid
having motion.
• Combination of advection
& conduction.
• Follows NEWTON’s Law of
Cooling.
 RADIATION

• Does’t require medium for heat

transfer.
• Follows Stefen- boltzman law
and plank’s law.
• Occurs when the emitted
radiation strikes another body
and is absorbed.
Reynold number
 The Reynolds number is the ratio of
inertial forces to viscous forces within a
fluid which is subjected to relative
internal movement due to different fluid
velocities.

Nusselt Number
 Nusselt number (Nu) is the ratio of
convective to conductive heat transfer Where
h= convective heat transfer coefficient
across (normal to) the boundary. L= pipe diameter
λ = thermal conductivity
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS

Governing equation

Mass conservation
equation
Momentum conservation
equation
Energy conservation
equation
GEOMETRY
The computational domain of circular mirco
channel is represented in 2D form by a
rectangle. The geometry consist of a wall ,
centreline, inlet and outlet boundaries radius R
and length L of the pipe.

MESHING OF GEOMETRY
Structured meshing done in ANSYS workbench was
used for meshing the geometry. 212155 nodes and
210600 elements were created. The 2D geometry of
circular micro channel with structured meshed.
BOUNDARY LAYERS

PIPE INLET ISOTHERMAL WALL

PIPE OUTLET HEATED WALL

SOLUTION
After solution method we initialize
the solution computed from inlet
gauge pressure=0, axial velocity=15
for Re=300 and 10 for Re=200 radial
velocity=0 and temp= 300k. And we
run the calculation up to 1000
iteration.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
VELOCITY CONTOUR

The flow from inlet to outlet flow

velocity developed uniformly. But it
gains maximum velocity in middle of the
pipe shown by red colour. And it
increases comparatively lower in pipe
wall shown by blue colour.
 VELOCITY VECTOR
From the figure we can see that velocity is
not developed fully at inlet. On development
of flow velocity profile starts to develop. At
the end velocity profile is fully developed
which is shown by red colour. At the wall
velocity remains zero and at the centreline
velocity reaches its maximum state.
PRESSURE COUNTOUR
Looking at pressure contours we can infer that there is pressure
drop as we move from inlet of the tube to the outlet of the tube.
pressure generally decreases from high pressure level to low
pressure level from inlet to outlet. Red colour indicates high
pressure and blue colour indicates low pressure in the figure. In
this figure we can see that pressure decreases from red colour to
blue colour

TEMPERATURE COUNTOR
we can see that temp remains same in inlet. From inlet to
outlet flow temp increases in pipe wall and temp increases
comparatively low in centreline area in pipe at outlet we can
see that temp increases by maximum range by red colour in
pipe wall. And temp increases comparatively lower in middle
range shown by light green colour.
TEMPERATURE ALONG MICROTUBE
From the fig, it is clear that up to
0.14m temperature is constant
because the wall is isothermal. And
then it increases up to outlet. For Re=200

For Re=300
 VELOCITY PROFILE

From the figure it is seen that the

velocity profile is parabolic so our
analysis is justified. We calculate
the axial velocity as 10m/sec for
For Re=200
Re=200 and 15m/sec for Re=300
and from the graph we find that
the velocity at outlet become
16.6m/sec at outlet for Re 200 and
24.8m/sec for Re 300.

For Re=300
VELOCITY ALONG MICROTUBE

From the graphs it is clear that

for both the given Reynolds
number the velocity increases
linearly near the inlet and then
remains constant along rest For Re=300
length of the pipe

For Re=200
AXIAL PRESSURE VARIATION ALONG THE
MICROTUBE
From the fig it is clear that at
the inlet the pressure is high
and at the outlet the pressure
is low. We all know that fluid
flows from higher pressure to For Re=300
lower pressure thus it can be
understood that the fluid is
flowing due to effect of
pressure difference.

For Re=200
SKIN FRICTION COEFFICIENT
From the above figure it is
observed that skin friction
coefficient decreases linearly
from inlet of the pipe to 0.012m
and then remains constant at 0.1
for Re=200 and 0.07 for Re=300. For Re=300

Thus it is concluded that skin

friction coefficient depends
significantly on Reynolds number

For Re=200
VARIATION OF NUSSELT NUMBER ALONG THE
MICROTUBE

From the above graph it can be clearly shown that up to isothermal region the nusselt no. is very high and in the
region of constant flux it decreases along the tube and nearly at the outlet it becomes almost constant.
FUTURE SCOPE
 Modeling and simulation of two
phase flow in micro channel.
 Analysis of the boiling
characteristics of nanofluids using
CFD models.
 CONCLUSION
 The analysis performed, provides a fundamental understanding of the combined flow
and conjugate convection-conduction heat transfer in the 3-dimensional micro-tube..
 A three dimensional mathematical model, developed using incompressible laminar
Navier-Stokes equations of motion is capable of predicting correctly the flow and heat
transfer in the micro-channel.
 The skin friction and nusselt number decreases along the microtube from inlet to
outlet .
 These findings support the concept of manifold micro-channel (MMC) where the flow
length is greatly reduced to small fractions of the local length of the channel by using
the design with multiple interconnected inlets and outlets.