Thermally developing flow and heat transfer in rectangular microchannels of different aspect ratios

Laminar convective heat transfer in the entrance region of microchannels of rectangular cross-section is investigated under circumferentially uniform wall temperature and axially uniform wall heat flux thermal boundary conditions. Three-dimensional numerical simulations were performed for laminar thermally developing flow in microchannels of different aspect ratios. Based on the temperature and heat flux distributions obtained, both the local and average Nusselt numbers are presented graphically as a function of the dimensionless axial distance and channel aspect ratio. Generalized correlations, useful for the design and optimization of microchannel heat sinks and other microfluidic devices, are proposed for predicting Nusselt numbers. The proposed correlations are compared with other conventional correlations and with available experimental data, and show very good agreement. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.