Scale effects on hydrodynamics and heat transfer in two-dimensional mini and microchannels

The present paper is devoted to experimental investigations of the flow and the associated heat transfer in two-dimensional microchannels. Scaling laws pertaining to the hydrodynamics and heat transfer in microchannels are not yet clearly established. The published results are affected by a significant scatter, owing to the various conditions used in the experiments, and, most likely, owing to the difficulty of measurements at micronic scales. The present facility was designed to modify easily the channel height e. It was then possible to investigate hydrodynamics and heat transfer in channels of height ranging from I mm, which corresponds to conventional size, up to 0.1 mm, where size effects are expected. Size effects were therefore tested in the same set-up and with the same channel walls for all the experiments, which were carried out with demineralized water. Measurements of the overall friction coefficient and of local Nusselt numbers show that the classical laws of hydrodynamics and heat transfer are verified for e > 0.4 mm. For lower values of e, a significant decrease of the Nusselt number is observed whereas the Poiseuille number keeps the conventional value of laminar developed flow. The transition to turbulence is not affected by the channel size. (C) 2002 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.