Fluid flow and heat transfer of liquid-liquid Taylor flow in square microchannels

The fluid flow and heat transfer of liquid-liquid Taylor flow in a square microchannel are studied both experimentally and numerically using a three-dimensional numerical simulation. The experiment was carried out with a square channel with a hydraulic diameter of 2 mm, and the CFD simulations were performed for square channels with hydraulic diameters of 1 and 2 mm. Constant heat flux boundary conditions were applied in both the experiment and the simulations. Hexadecane, kerosene and water were used as working fluids. The friction factor and the heat transfer rate of the liquid-liquid Taylor flows have been determined. The results indicate that liquid-liquid Taylor flow can increase the rate of heat transfer by up to 700 percent over that single phase flow. It was found that shorter slugs with longer droplets significantly increased the heat transfer performance. Correlations have been developed to predict the friction factor and Nusselt number of liquid-liquid Taylor flow in square microchannels.