Effect of channel arrangement on the thermal hydraulic performance of multilayer microchannel arrays

Abstract

Thermal hydraulic performance of microchannel device is affected mainly by its geometrical parameter. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of multilayer microchannel arrangement to the thermal hydraulic performance of microchannel arrays. Numerical analysis was conducted to simulate three different microchannel arrangements by varying mass flow rate and heat flux imposed on the microchannel device. The simulation model is a simplified version which consists of eight microchannels in a single row and contains four layers for model one while model two has an arrangement of eight-seven-eight-seven microchannels in four layers and model three has an arrangement of seven-eight-seven-eight microchannels in four layers. The boundary condition that was set for heat flux ranged between 200 W/cm2 to 1000 W/cm2 while mass flow rate that flow into the device was varied between 20 kg/h to 80 kg/h. From the simulation result, it is shown that certain arrangement of microchannel in multilayer channels contribute to the enhancement of heat transfer and at the same time reducing the pressure drop of the system.