Stéphane Colin

Heat Transfer in Microchannels—2012 Status and Research Needs

Heat transfer and fluid flow in microchannels have been topics of intense research in the past decade. A critical review of the current state of research is presented with a focus on the future research needs. After providing a brief introduction, the paper addresses six topics related to transport phenomena in microchannels: single-phase gas flow, enhancement in single-phase liquid flow and flow boiling, flow boiling instability, condensation, electronics cooling, and microscale heat exchangers. After reviewing the current status, future research directions are suggested. Concerning gas phase convective heat transfer in microchannels, the antagonist role played by the slip velocity and the temperature jump that appear at the wall are now clearly understood and quantified. It has also been demonstrated that the shear work due to the slipping fluid increases the effect of viscous heating on heat transfer. On the other hand, very few experiments support the theoretical models and a significant effort should be made in this direction, especially for measurement of temperature fields within the gas in microchannels, implementing promising recent techniques such as molecular tagging thermometry (MTT). The single-phase liquid flow in microchannels has been established to behave similar to the macroscale flows. The current need is in the area of further enhancing the performance. Progress on implementation of flow boiling in microchannels is facing challenges due to its lower heat transfer coefficients and critical heat flux (CHF) limits. An immediate need for breakthrough research related to these two areas is identified. Discussion about passive and active methods to suppress flow boiling instabilities is presented. Future research focus on instability research is suggested on developing active closed loop feedback control methods, extending current models to better predict and enable superior control of flow instabilities. Innovative high-speed visualization and measurement techniques have led to microchannel condensation now being studied as a unique process with its own governing influences. Further work is required to develop widely applicable flow regime maps that can address many fluid types and geometries. With this, condensation heat transfer models can progress from primarily annular flow based models with some adjustments using dimensionless parameters to those that can directly account for transport in intermittent and other flows, and the varying influences of tube shape, surface tension and fluid property differences over much larger ranges than currently possible. Electronics cooling continues to be the main driver for improving thermal transport processes in microchannels, while efforts are warranted to develop high performance heat exchangers with microscale passages. Specific areas related to enhancement, novel configurations, nanostructures and practical implementation are expected to be the research focus in the coming years.

Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Monostable Mini- and Micro-Oscillators

An asymmetric micro-oscillator design based on a monostable fluidic amplifier is proposed. Experimental data with various feedback loop configurations point out that the main effect responsible for the oscillation is a capacitive and not a propagative effect. Actually, sound propagation in the feedback loop only generates a secondary oscillation which is not strong enough to provoke the jet switching. Data from a hybrid simulation using a commercial CFD code and a simple analytical model are in good agreement with the experimental data. A more compact plane design with reduced feedback loop volumes is also studied through a fully CFD simulation that confirms the previous conclusions.

Design and optimization of electrochemical microreactors for continuous electrosynthesis

The study focuses on the design and construction, as well as the theoretical and experimental optimization of electrochemical filter press microreactors for the electrosynthesis of molecules with a high added value. The main characteristics of these devices are firstly a high-specific electrochemical area to increase conversion and selectivity, and secondly the shape and size of the microchannels designed for a uniform residence time distribution of the fluid. A heat exchanger is integrated into the microstructured electrode to rapidly remove (or supply) the heat required in exo- or endothermic reactions. The microreactors designed are used to perform-specific electrosynthesis reactions such as thermodynamically unfavorable reactions (continuous NADH regeneration), or reactions with high enthalpy changes.

Experimentation of electrostatically actuated monochip micropump for drug delivery

The objective of the MICROMED CNRS project is the design of a complete microsystem usable in the treatment in vivo of hypertensives. The microsystem which corresponds with this objective includes different elements such as pressure sensors, a drug reservoir, a monitoring chip and a drug delivery system that necessitates the use of a dosing micropump able to deliver daily does of few microliters in several shots. We will focus here on the micropump:microfabrication technology, assembly and test. The fact that the fluid actuating membrane, the input and output fluid gates, and the two passive microvalues are together on a single silicon chip of 1 cm3 area makes this pump original. The fabrication technology combines the techniques of microelectronics and MEMS: micromachining for the square membrane and the fluid gates, sacrificial oxide layers and LPCVD polysilicon deposition for the microvalves. The assembly of the different parts is based on existing techniques like anodic bonding, gluing with adhesive films...we have investigated the fabrication of the micro pump with an electrostatic actuation. Tests are in progress for the first prototypes on a specific experimentation set- up in order to: (i) study the flowing of different fluids into the pump, (ii) study the directionality of the valves by plotting the flow rate/pressure (Phi) (P) diagram, (iii) study the pump functionality.

Gas Microflows in the Slip Flow Regime: A Review on Heat Transfer

Accurate modeling of gas microvection is crucial for a lot of MEMS applications (micro-heat exchangers, pressure gauges, fluidic microactuators for active control of aerodynamic flows, mass flow and temperature micro-sensors, micropumps and microsystems for mixing or separation for local gas analysis, mass spectrometers, vacuum and dosing valves[[ellipsis]]). Gas flows in microsystems are often in the slip flow regime, characterized by a moderate rarefaction with a Knudsen number of the order of 10−2 –10−1 . In this regime, velocity slip and temperature jump at the walls play a major role in heat transfer. This paper presents a state of the art review on convective heat transfer in microchannels, focusing on rarefaction effects in the slip flow regime. Analytical and numerical models are compared for various microchannel geometries and heat transfer conditions (constant heat flux or constant wall temperature). The validity of simplifying assumptions is detailed and the role played by the kind of velocity slip and temperature jump boundary conditions is shown. The influence of specific effects, such as viscous dissipation, axial conduction and variable fluid properties is also discussed.Copyright

Numerical analysis of thermal creep flow in curved channels for designing a prototype of Knudsen micropump

The possibility to generate a gas flow inside a channel just by imposing a tangential temperature gradient along the walls without the existence of an initial pressure difference is well known. The gas must be under rarefied conditions, meaning that the system must operate between the slip and the free molecular flow regimes, either at low pressure or/and at micro/nano-scale dimensions. This phenomenon is at the basis of the operation principle of Knudsen pumps, which are actually compressors without any moving parts. Nowadays, gas flows in the slip flow regime through microchannels can be modeled using commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics softwares, because in this regime the compressible Navier-Stokes equations with appropriate boundary conditions are still valid. A simulation procedure has been developed for the modeling of thermal creep flow using ANSYS Fluent®. The implementation of the boundary conditions is achieved by developing User Defined Functions (UDFs) by means of C++ routines. The complete first order velocity slip boundary condition, including the thermal creep effects due to the axial temperature gradient and the effect of the wall curvature, and the temperature jump boundary condition are applied. The developed simulation tool is used for the preliminary design of Knudsen micropumps consisting of a sequence of curved and straight channels.

Analysis of Gaseous Flows in Minichannels by Molecular Tagging Velocimetry

The Molecular Tagging Velocimetry (MTV) technique has been widely used for analyzing velocity fields in liquid mini- and microflows. Concerning gaseous flows, only few works describe the implementation of MTV at millimetric scale, and these studies are limited to the analysis of external flows, such as jet flows. The goal of the present work is to develop this technique for the analysis of internal gas flows in minichannels. It is a first step toward the visualization of velocity profiles in rarefied conditions, and direct measurement of velocity slip at the walls.A specific experimental setup has been designed. Its features are detailed. Velocity profiles are obtained in a pressure driven steady flow of argon through a long rectangular minichannel of 1.2 × 5 mm2 cross-section and 15 cm length using acetone molecules as tracer. Experiments are carried out at atmospheric pressure, in a laminar continuum flow regime. The accuracy of the method is discussed by comparison between experimental and theoretical velocity profiles.The potential of the MTV technique for analyzing mini or micro gaseous internal flows is commented on. Perspectives of the work for discussing the validity of boundary conditions in the slip flow regime are presented.Copyright

Slip length measurement of gas flow

In this paper, we present a review of the most important techniques used to measure the slip length of gas flow on isothermal surfaces. First, we present the famous Millikan experiment and then the rotating cylinder and spinning rotor gauge methods. Then, we describe the gas flow rate experiment, which is the most widely used technique to probe a confined gas and measure the slip. Finally, we present a promising technique using an atomic force microscope introduced recently to study the behavior of nanoscale confined gas.

Flow rate measurements of binary gas mixtures through long trapezoidal microchannels

The flow rate of two noble gas mixtures, namely He/Ar and He/Kr, is measured through a microsystem containing 400 long trapezoidal microchannels placed in parallel configuration. Each microchannel has a trapezoidal cross section with long base 5.38 micrometers and height 1.90 micrometers, while its length is 5000 micrometers. The experiment is based on the constant volume method. The flow is driven by pressure gradient. The flow rate measurements refer to downstream pressures of 15.1 kPa and 8.05 kPa. The pressure ratio is in the range of 3-7 and 4-7 for the larger and smaller downstream pressures, respectively. The investigated rarefaction range is in the slip and early transition regions. The concentration of He varies from zero to one. The measured flow rates are compared to the corresponding computational ones obtained by the numerical solution of the McCormack kinetic model. Very good agreement between the experimental and computational results is reached. The difference between the corresponding results is less than the experimental uncertainty. Typical pressure and concentration profiles along the axis and the velocity profiles in the center of the channel obtained from the numerical solution are also presented.

DSMC SIMULATION OF PRESSURE DRIVEN BINARY RAREFIED GAS FLOWS THROUGH SHORT MICROTUBES

Binary gas flows driven by pressure gradient through short microtubes are studied by using an upgraded version of the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. Two types of mixtures, He/Xe and Ne/Ar, are examined. Several values of the channel length to radius ratio, the downstream to upstream pressure ratio and a wide range of the gas rarefaction are considered. Results are presented for the species and total flow rates and for the axial distributions of the macroscopic quantities. There is a pronounced difference of the flow behavior of the two mixtures due to the different molecular mass ratios. The flow rate of the He/Xe mixture for very short channels and large pressure drops is increased with increasing gas rarefaction, while the flow rate of the Ne/Ar mixture shows a different rarefaction dependence. The obtained results can be useful in optimal design of microfluidic or vacuum devices.Copyright