Accepted Manuscript

Numerical investigation of heat transfer in microchannel using inclined longi-

tudinal vortex generator

Aparesh Datta, Dipankar Sanyal, Ajoy Kumar Das

PII: S1359-4311(16)31306-0
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.07.165
Reference: ATE 8763

To appear in: Applied Thermal Engineering

Received Date: 2 March 2016

Revised Date: 17 June 2016
Accepted Date: 23 July 2016

Please cite this article as: A. Datta, D. Sanyal, A.K. Das, Numerical investigation of heat transfer in microchannel
using inclined longitudinal vortex generator, Applied Thermal Engineering (2016), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.applthermaleng.2016.07.165

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Numerical investigation of heat transfer in microchannel using inclined longitudinal
vortex generator

Aparesh Dattaa* , Dipankar Sanyalb, Ajoy Kumar Dasa,

a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Agartala,
Agartala, Tripura, 799046, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West
Bengal,700032,India

* Corresponding author
Tel No 09774958370, Email: adatta96@gmail.com.
Abstract: A three dimensional numerical investigation of the fluid flow and heat transfer
behaviour of longitudinal vortex generator (LVG) has been carried out in a rectangular micro
heat sink in the Reynolds number range between 200 and 1100 in the temperature range
without involving phase change. Different combinations of two LVG pairs with different
inclinations and positioning in terms of the distances from the inlet are considered for LVG
heights being equal to the channel height. The best overall performance has been predicted
with 300 LVG angle foe Reynolds number beyond 600, whereas for lower numbers higher
LVG angle has been found as more suitable. Thickness of the microchannel has been found
to reduce both the heat transfer and the thermal performance. Larger channel length
downstream of the second LVG pair has been found to enhance the heat transfer, due to the
better mixing following the vortex break up by this LVG pair. These findings have important
bearing on achieving enhanced cooling performance for small electronic devices not
involving any complicated geometric arrangement.

Keywords: Rectangular microchannel, heat transfer, vortex generator, friction factor,

numerical simulation.

1
1. Introduction: The continued miniaturization of the electronic instruments is always posing

new challenge to the cooling of these devices. Indeed inadequate cooling remains the chief

cause of failure of these systems and the thrust for making these devices more compact

demands the cooling to become more efficient. Microchannels are characterized by high

surface to volume ratio providing a more efficient means of heat transfer than conventional

channels [1]. Tuckerman and Pease [2] first introduced rectangular microchannel heat sink

made of silicon for cooling very large-scale integrated circuit by water and obtained high rate

of heat transfer.

Xu et al [3] found the experimental results in microchannel to agree well with the numerical

results predicted by the conventional Navier Stokes equation. Using the same basic

formulation, Quand and Madawar [4] analysed the conjugate heat transfer, pressure and

temperature distributions in microchannels. Harm et al. [5] showed the heat transfer to

increase with decrease of the channel width and increase of the channel depth for Reynolds

numbers Re in the range of 173 to 12900. The flow was observed to become turbulent

beyond a critical Re equal to 1500. This critical number happens to be lower than that in

macrochannels.

Fluid flow and heat transfer effects in microchannels have been studied in the past for fan

shaped re-entrant channel geometry with triangular and trapezoidal ribs as well as in circular

cavities with rectangular, triangular, trapezoidal and circular ribs [6-12]. Observed

enhancement in heat transfer was attributed to the disruption of the boundary layer by the ribs

leading to better mixing and redevelopment of the layer resulting in lower resistance to heat

transfer [13]. Yadav at al. [14] used cylindrical LVG in microsink with good effect. Of

course, these ribs and similar obstructions such as wing, winglet and vortex generators create

2
vortices and secondary flows leading to better mixing and improved heat transfer. It has been

observed that compared to transverse vortices, longitudinal vortices are more effective in

increasing heat transfer [13].

Fiebig [15] investigated the effect of longitudinal vortex generator, or LVG, on the flow and

heat transfer over flat plate. They varied the setting angle and geometry of LVGs and

Reynolds number. Fiebig et al. [16] studied the heat transfer aspect using four different LVGs

such as delta wings, rectangular wings, delta winglets, rectangular winglet in channel at

different ranges of Re 1000 to 2000 varying the aspect ratio of channel 0.8 to 2 between the

angle of LVG 100 to 600. Observations of their study provided a number of important

conclusions as given next. The effectiveness per unit VG area of delta wings is better than

delta winglets and delta winglet pairs. Rectangular wings and rectangular winglets is much

less effective. With increase in setting angle with respect to the axial direction, the circulation

increases. Stable vortices are generated for wing up to a setting angle of 500 for Re below

1000. The strength of the vortices generated by delta wing is larger than those downstream of

rectangular wings. Their results revealed that the delta wings to provide the most effective

cooling followed by rectangular wing, delta winglet and rectangular winglet per unit VG

area.

Sohankar and Davidson [17] studied the effect of size, inclination and position of VGs using

a pair of inclined blocks in a channel for Re between 400 and1500. They considered 100 to

300 inclinations. For the 300 inclined block, the flow was observed as unsteady between Re of

1000 and 1500. The increase in inclination from 100 to 300 was found to increase the Nusselt

number sharply.

Wu and Tao [18, 19] considered channel with rectangular winglet to study the increase in

heat transfer that the holes in the base provides with respect to a base without holes. By using

a set of VG setting angles of 150, 300, 450, 600 and 900, they concluded 450 angular setting

3
with VG height equal to that of half of the channel to give the maximum heat transfer.

However, higher VG angles invited the penalty of higher drag force or pressure drop in the

channel. The effectiveness on heat transfer also found to depend on the VG positioning.

When the vortex generator was moved away from inlet, heat transfer decreased and increase

of transverse distance between the VG enhanced the heat transfer. A study carried out by

keeping the position of VG fixed revealed that increase in height of the VG increased the heat

transfer together with the associated penalty of increase in the pressure drop. For LVGs of

same surface area, higher heat transfer and lower pressure drop were observed for higher

length and lower height of LVGs. Further, they concluded that the delta winglet vortex

generator to give better heat transfer than rectangular winglet vortex generator for same

surface area of VGs.

Liu et al. [20] experimentally studied the heat transfer and fluid flow in rectangular

microchannels using rectangular vortex generator. Six LVG sets were used, by setting the

height of the LVG equal to the height of the channel. The transition zone was concluded to

occur for Re in the range from 600 to 720. The combination of three pairs of LVG with angle

of 1500, 300, 1500 was found to produce the best result. Chen et al. [21] investigated fluid

flow and heat transfer in rectangular microchannel by using LVG in the Re range between

350 and 1500. The 450 LVG with height one fourth of the length predicted the maximum heat

transfer. Based on a numerical study, Ebrahimi et al. [22] reported maximum heat transfer in

microchannel with two pairs of rectangular LVG in staggered arrangement. Ebrahimi et al.

[23] showed increase in heat transfer to occur by the use of nanofluids.

It is apparent from the existing literature that the pressure drop in a channel is a penalty that is

always associated with achieving increase in heat transfer. Various parametric studies carried

out in this context pertain to various geometries of the channels and the vortex generators

along with the placement of the vortex generators. In case of microchannels, geometries more

4
intricate than rectangular channels and VGs in the form of flat plates would call for extreme

technological challenge and consequent rise in the cost of the heat exchanger. Therefore, the

main objective of this study is set as to find out best inclination of LVG, the position of LVG,

optimum distance between two LVG towards the flow direction, effect of heat flux and

thickness of wall in microchannel for achieving the best overall performance. A validation of

the numerical model against existing experimental results has been provided prior to the

analysis.

2. Model Descriptions

2.1. Mathematical formulation and numerical method:

Deionised water is used as a working liquid and silicon is used as the material for the

microchannel. For analysing the fluid flow and heat transfer in microchannel following

assumption are invoked.

1. Flow is three dimensional and incompressible.

2. Constant fluid properties except viscosity with respect to temperature for deionised

water are used. The dynamic viscosity is set as piece wise linear function of

temperature using data shown by Okhotin et. al [25].

3. Viscous dissipation is neglected [22, 26].

4. Developing flow is considered.

5. The radiation and gravitational effect are ignored.

Using the generalised notations x1 x , x2 y , x3 z , u1 u , u 2 v and u3 w , the mass,

momentum and energy equations used this computational analysis are respectively given by

5
( f ui ) / xi 0 , (1)

( f ui ) / t ( f ui u j ) / xi p / xi { f (u j / xi ui / x j )}/ xi , j=1, 2, 3, (2)

( f T ) / t ( f uiT ) / xi ( f T / xi ) / xi (3)

The energy equation for silicon is

(s T / xi ) / xi 0 (4)

As depicted in Fig. 1, the velocity and temperature at the inlet are considered as uniform as

given by

u= uin, w =v=0 Tf =Tin=298K at x=0. (5a)

At the outlet, fully developed conditions are imposed as

T f / x 0 and pout=1atm at x=L. (5b)

At the top, bottom and side walls, no slip boundary condition is applied as

u=v=w=0. (5c)

A uniform temperature is applied at the top surface of the microchannel as given by

T=Ts at z=H, (5d)

where in most of the studies this temperature has been taken as equal to 323K. Bottom and

side walls are considered as adiabatic leading to

(T / z ) | z H 0 and (T / y) | y0 & W 0 . (5e)

Due to a symmetric arrangement of the microchannels and LVGs, half portion of domain is

considered for the study with the boundary conditions on the plane of symmetry taken as

(T / y) | y W / 2 0 , (u / y) | y W / 2 0 and w =v=0. (5f)

The conjugate heat transfer between LVG surfaces and liquid is applied as

Ts = Tf and k f (T / n) | f k s (T / n) | s . (5g)

6
The commercial software Fluent 6.3.26 is used for numerically solving the governing

equations following the SIMPLEC method and using the power law scheme for the

discretization of the convective term in the momentum and energy equations. The governing

equations are solved until the normal residual values were less than for the continuity

and momentum equation and for the energy equation. A fixed time step of 510-5s is

used for the entire study.

Reynolds number has been calculated in terms of the density of the liquid f , the viscosity

of liquid f and the hydraulic diameter D h as

Re ( f Dh uin )/ f , (6a)

where Dh 2WH /(W H ) . (6b)

Nusselt number has been calculated as

Nu (qhp / T ) Dh / f (7)

where f , q hp and T are the conductivity of water, the average heat flux through the

channel top and the difference of temperatures of the volume averaged bulk fluid and the

heated top plate. Apparent friction factor and Overall heat transfer have been calculated

respectively as

f (2pDh ) /( f uin
2
L) (8)

Overall heat transfer given by Liu et al. [20]

Nu / f {( Nu / Nu0 ) 1}{( f / f 0 ) 1} (9)

2.2. Description of microchannel model:

7
Three dimensional simulations are carried out with different combinations of winglet type

vortex generator in micro-sink. One microchannel of micro sink of height 100m and length

1500m is considered were etched on silicon substrate and water was used as working fluid

[20]. Inside the microchannel two LVG with different angle are presented in study. Each

LVG has a thickness of 50m and length of 400m along with different inclination direction

with respect to the channel axis. The gap between the LVG and symmetric line is 100m

shown in the figure. Three different thicknesses of side wall and top wall of the microchannel

are considered to study the effect of conjugate heat transfer. Lastly, optimum distance

between the two LVG are found out.

2.3. Grid selection and numerical validation:

Five different grids with number of nodes listed in Table 2 are considered. In the same way as

in [24], the relative error between the finest grid (Nu1) and other grids (Nu2) are given in

Table 2 as

Error (%) = ( Nu2 Nu1 ) / Nu2 .

Results are obtained in term of Nusselt number for the microchannel having LVG inclination

300, 300, 300 at Re = 574. For its comparable error with the immediately finer grid and lower

execution time, the number of cells employed is 837. In fact, the validation study given in

Fig. 2(a) with respect to an existing study [20] provides further corroboration to this choice.

In the existing study due to Liu et al. [20], water was the working liquid and two different

channels of hydraulic diameter of 187.5m was considered. One was without the LVG and

the other with three LVG pairs having 300, 300 and 300 inclinations. Their set up was

comprised of a silicon rectangular microchannel surrounded in three sides by Pyrex glass

plates and a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) base plate connected to cooling chip at the

bottom of the microchannel. The chip was meant to ensure a constant temperature of 323K.

8
The maximum deviation in Fig. 2(a) between the present simulation results and the

experimental work [20] is 4.5% in case of both the channels with and without LVGs.

Incidentally, Liu et al. [20] mentioned the uncertainty for obtaining the Nusselt numbers in

those channels as 19.6% and 12.8%. The predictions in Figs. 2(b, c, d) has revealed the flow

to become unsteady for the combination of 450, 750 and 600, 750 LVG pairs in S7 and S10

channels, contrasting the steady flow for 300, 750 combination of LVG pairs in S4 channel at

maximum Re 1100.With this validation and observation, further parametric study is

presented next.

3. Result and Discussion:

3.1 Effect of fluid flow and heat transfer with change in VG setting angle:

For finding the effect of inclination of the vortex generators in the form of flat plates on heat

transfer, microchannel sets S0 to S10 with different VG settings listed in Table 1 are

considered. Set S0 does not have any LVG. Angles 1 and 2 for the first and second LVG

pairs shown in Fig. 1 are mentioned in the table are for Sets S1 to S10. Sets S1 to S4 have 300

as the angular setting of the first LVG pair and the angular setting of the second LVG pair in

the increasing order of 300, 450, 600 and 750. Sets S5 to S7 and Sets S8 to S10 have 1 equal

to 450 and 600 respectively and have three 2 values from the above set of four angles in

increasing order with the one equal to omitted. The height of the LVGs of is taken as equal

to the microchannel height H of 100m, whereas the width and length of a microchannel are

taken respectively as equal to 1500m and 0.02m. The distances of two pairs of LVG from

inlet are shown in Fig. 1 as L1 and L2 that are respectively equal to 5334m and 9883m.

Water is taken as the working fluid.

The variations of relative nondimensional numbers of heat transfer Nu/Nu0 and apparent

friction factor f/f0 as well as overall performance with Re are shown in Figs. 3 and 4,

9
respectively for microchannels S1 to S4 and S5 to S10. With increase in the angles of either

or both the LVG pairs, the path traversed by a fluid particle in the channel becomes longer.

Up to a Reynolds number below 450 or so, this can be attributed as the cause of steady

increase of both heat transfer rate and friction factor with increase in LVG angles, as

observed in the figures. The predicted increase in the relative ratios of nondimensional

numbers with Re could be the consequence of increase in curvilinear acceleration with Re

leading to larger transverse shift of the streamlines and hence longer traverse length of the

fluid. With further increase in Re beyond 450, the observed faster rate of rise in Nu/Nu0 in

both Figs. 3(a) and 4(a) with the LVG angles could be the consequence of vortex shedding

leading to more vigorous flow mixing. In view of the strong nonlinear nature of the vortex

shedding, the effect of increase of Re on the increase of these ratios are much sharper for

higher Re involving vortex shedding than that at lower Re involving no vortex shedding. A

comparison of Figs. 3 (c) and 4(c) reveals that up to Re 600 the LVG with higher angle

shows better performance and Re beyond 600 reveals S1 channel to have the best overall

performance. This indicates the effect of increasing the LVG angle of the first pair in

enhancing Nu/Nu0 to get nullified by the increase in f/f0. Of course, this is an important

finding in the context of designing a microchannel with LVGs for heat transfer enhancement

with less aggressive increase in pressure loss in the channel.

In Figs. 5 and 6, the temperature and velocity contours at Re equal to 800 and at a height of

0.5H from the bottom plate are shown for S1 to S4 channels. Up to the second vortex

generator, both these contours appear to be very similar. The predicted local increase in

maximum velocity occurring at the neighbourhood of the second LVG pair could be the

consequence of increase in the overall channel blockage with increase in the LVG angle. Up

to the first LVG pair, the temperature and velocity remain almost uniform and close to the

respective inlet conditions almost. Between the two LVG pairs, the observed variations for all

10
the channels appear as closely similar. This is expected due to identical setting angle 1 of the

first LVG pair and not any major influence of the downstream flow at the high Re of this

study. After the second pair of vortex generator, the effect of the difference in the setting

angle 2 on the predicted thermal map and velocity distributions are clearly different. This is

physically expected on the ground of strengthening of the vortices with increase in 2

leading to stronger interaction between the hot surface and the coolant. The predicted

increase in heat transfer in Fig. 3(a) from Channels S1 to S4 is of course consistent.

Fig. 7 represents the temperature contour and streamline of the bottom surface at Re equal to

750 and 450. In each case, flow separation starts before the LVG and reattachment takes

place after the LVG. Two separation bubbles are created for each LVG. The sizes of the

separation bubble increase with increase in inclination of the LVG. Larger bubble can

increase the mixing of hot fluid near the heated top wall and cold fluid near the bottom wall.

So, Nu/ Nu0 and f/f0 also increase accordingly [26].

The temperature contour for S4 channel at the bottom surface in Fig. 7(b) and 7(d) shows that

after the second LVG pair, the downward penetration of heat from the top wall decreases

with increase in Re. Of course, this is due to the increase in convective heat transfer with

increase in Re. Up to the axial location of the first LVG pair in Fig. 5 (d), the temperature

variation across the channel width is clearly weak. Such a situation of nearly downward heat

transfer is expected for adiabatic conditions at both the side walls combined with nearly

uniform flow over short axial distance downstream from the inlet. Of course downstream of

any LVG, the flow pattern becomes highly disruptive due to the formation of a central jet

between the LVGs in the same pair and the vortex emanating from the LVG tip near the side

wall. Five distinct regions across the width are apparent in this zone, the distinction becoming

11
more evident at higher Re. These regions between the first and second vortex pairs are

described next.

One region near the channel axis corresponds to the central jet. Two regions appear at the

back of each LVG. Each of this appears between its tip vortex and the central jet. Two more

regions lie near each side wall and its nearest tip vortex. The sidewise expansion of the

central jet obviously causes vertical contraction of the streamlines leading to strong

downward heat convection near the axis. This explains the observed elevated temperature

near the axis. The sidewise expansion of the central jet also confines the wake behind each

LVG in the first pair to a narrow zone. This is evident from the thin high temperature zone on

the downstream wall of each LVG. The temperature enhancement can be attributed to the

mixing action of the small eddies within the wake at the back of the LVG. Outside the wake,

the region axially away from each LVG is seen to contract towards the axis. This is consistent

with the flow expansion between the tip vortex and the wall near it. The size of separation

bubble increases with the increase of inlet velocity.

The effect of eddy mixing and the consequent high temperature zone at the back of each LVG

in the second pair appears as much stronger than that at the back of each LVG in the first

pair. One reason of the higher eddy mixing at the LVG back is the higher inclination of the

second LVG pair. The other reason is the weaker downwash effect the central jet due to the

weakening of the core velocity upstream of the second LVG pair in comparison to that

upstream of the first pair. The subsequent strong mixing action due to the shed vortices

makes the temperature gradient at the top wall steeper in comparison to that at the upstream

side, the steepness increasing further with Re. The separation bubble after the LVG get

strengthen with the increase of Re, which corresponds to increase in both Nu/Nu0 and f/f0.

12
It is visible from Fig. 7 that with the increase of Re, the separation bubble size also increases.

For Re 400 and 750, the size of separation bubble in S4 channel is more than that in S1

channel. But for S4 channel at Re 750, the separation bubble breaks and increases the number

of the reattachment zones. The size of the separation bubble in S4 channel is big, due to

which the vortices strike the side wall and lose their energy. This results in more significant

increase in f/f0 in comparison to Nu/Nu0 at higher Re. In case of S1 channel, the vortices do

not collide with the side walls. This enhances the heat transfer with relatively lower penalty

in wall friction. This explains the maximum overall performance of S1 channel observed in

Fig. 4(c).

It is evident from Fig. 8 that the length of downward penetration of heat from the top wall

increases with increase in the axial distance from the inlet. The stronger enhancement effect

downstream of the second LVG pair is also evident. This enhancement can be attributed to

the central jet weakening as explained above in the context of Fig. 7. An interesting

observation in Fig. 8 is similar size of the high temperature region at the backside of the first

and second LVG pairs at 0.5H and 0.75H heights. This may be attributed to stronger eddy

generation mechanism at the back of the first pair getting countered by stronger downwash

effect due to the stronger upstream central jet in comparison to the relatively weaker

generation and countering effects for the second pair. The weaker central jet through the gap

between the second vortex pair in comparison to that for the first pair is evident from Fig. 9.

An oscillating flow trail downstream of the tip of first LVG pair observed in Fig. 9 can be

attributed to its higher inclination angle in comparison the angle of the second pair.

Fig. 10 represents the temperature contours in S5, S6 and S7 channels at different vertical

sections along the width. The first two sections represent the section before the vortex

generator, where uniform temperature distribution prevails. For the remaining section, the

temperature increases sharply presumably due to the vortices created by the LVGs. Among

13
the S5, S6 and S7 channels with the angle of the first LVG pair set at 45 0, the occurrence of

the highest temperature can be noticed in S7 channel. As explained earlier in the context of

the common discussion pertaining to Figs. 5 and 6, this must be due to the largest angle of the

LVG setting for the second pair.

Fig. 11 depicts the contours at identical locations in S4, S7 and S10 channels. The inclination

of second LVG for these channels is same, whereas the angle of first LVG is different. Up to

the first LVG location from the inlet, the figures show nearly uniform temperature along the

channel width and decreasing temperature gradient in the vertical direction along the axial

direction. Downstream of the LVGs the vertical temperature gradient is seen to reduce at a

faster rate along the axial direction along with establishment of nonuniform variation along

the width. These are of course due to the strong vortex interactions as explained earlier. With

increase in the angle of the LVGs both in the first and second pairs, the nonuniform variation

across the width is seen to increase. This pattern is consistent with enhancement of Nu with

LVG inclinations observed in Fig. 7. Fig. 11 also reveals the thermal maps downstream of the

second LVG to be different with the highest local temperature apparent in S10 channel

having the highest setting angle of the second pair. It can be argued that higher angle of the

first LVG pair induces higher instabilities in the flow leading to more rapid break down of the

vortices after the second LVG despite their same angular setting in all the cases presented in

this figure. As Fig. 3 reveals the best thermal performance at higher Re to occur for the

combination of 300 of both LVG pairs, the effect of conjugate heat transfer for this channel is

presented next in greater detail.

3.2 Effect of conjugate heat transfer:

In order to capture the effects of finite thickness of the walls of the microchannels, the

conjugate boundary conditions of matching temperature and heat flux at the solid-liquid

interface is imposed in a manner similar to Eq. (5g) as

14
T s T f and k f (T / n) | f k s (T / n) |s .

Table 3 marks an idealized microchannel with zero wall thickness as T0 that provides the

basis of comparison of the effects of conjugate heat transfer for different wall thicknesses.

Same thickness of both the side and top walls equal to 50m and 100 m are considered for

T1 in T2 channels respectively. Channel T3 has side and top wall thicknesses of 100 m and

200 m respectively. Fig. 12 shows the fluid heat transfer to decrease with increase of

thickness of wall. This is understandable due to increase in thermal resistance with the

increase in wall thickness. These results are in agreement to those obtained by Ambatipudi

and Rahman [27,28].

The effect of different constant wall temperatures on heat transfer and friction factor variation

with Re has been shown in Fig. 13 with two different temperatures of the top wall equal to

323k and 350K considering the thickness of both the top and side walls equal to 50 m. With

the increase in the temperature of top wall, the physical properties of water near the wall

undergo an increase in the conductivity and decrease in the viscosity. In turn, this entails a

decrease in the Nusselt number consistent with Eq. (7) and a decrease in friction factor as

explained next. As the pressure drop term in Eq. (8) decreases with decrease of fluid viscosity

through lowering of wall shear stress, the predicted decrease in the friction factor at low Re is

also physically understandable. At large Re, the effect of mixing due to vorticity dominates

over the effect of physical change in the properties. As a result, the effects of change in the

wall temperature on the variations of the performance parameters presented in the figure

expectedly taper off.

The effect of LVG positioning described in Table 4 has been analysed in Figs. 14 and 15, by

considering the side and top walls as 50m thick. In the range of Re studied, the Nusselt

number remain the maximum for the P1 channel closely followed by the P2 channel, with the

15
P3 channel providing the minimum variation. A look at Fig. 15 clearly reveals the positioning

of the second LVG pair nearer to the inlet allow better heat transfer over larger length of the

channel after this pair. A comparison of the results of the P2 and P4 channels shows that a

larger separation between the first and second LVG pair could be detrimental from the heat

transfer enhancement point of view. While the first LVG pair can be seen as a mechanism for

vortex generation, the second pair causes break down of the vortices to enhance the mixing.

A larger separation between the LVG pairs may allow the vortices to become more stable,

thereby reducing the disruptive effect of the second pair. Closely similar variations of the

friction factor with Re for all the cases shown in this figure implies the effect of the vortex

generators to remain by and large confined in the core region and not extended up to the

walls.

4. Conclusions:

The size of vortices in a microchannel increases with increase in both Re and LVG angle with

respect to the axial direction. Consequently, the heat transfer becomes more but at the cost of

increased pressure drop or friction factor. At higher Re and higher LVG angle, the vortices

collide with side walls and loose strength. This not only inhibits both mixing and the

consequent heat transfer, it also causes an increase in the friction factor. Clearly, this study

has brought out the physical mechanism responsible for an optimum setting of LVG angles

from the viewpoint of heat transfer enhancement.

Of course, the distance between a vortex generator and the side wall has a crucial role on the

loss of vortex strength by impacting on the wall. Hence, the results pertaining to a

microchannel may not be scalable to larger channels. The increased distance between any VG

and a side wall would demand an increase in Re for microchannel results to be scalable to

macrochannels. The changes of viscosity with temperature in microchannel play a vital role

16
on heat transfer. However as this study has revealed, Reynolds number induces nonlinear

effects on both flow and heat transfer.

A major issue of this investigation is the identification of an appropriate combination of the

angular orientation of two pairs of LVGs. Using a large number of combinations of two pairs

of LVGs, 300-300 combination of the first and second pairs has been found as the best. The

study has revealed the LVGs to be more effective in generating vortices beyond Re of 600.

While the first pair contributes to the vortex generation, the second pair excites their break up

leading to vigorous mixing and heat transfer enhancement beyond its location. Of course, this

is an important inference drawn from this study. An extension of the earlier finding has

revealed that a larger length downstream of the second VG pair is more effective in

enhancing the heat transfer. However, the role of the second LVG in breaking up the vortices

generated by the first pair has been predicted as less effective for the distance between the

two pairs getting higher beyond a limit.

Another aspect of this CFD study is the consideration of the conjugate heat transfer effect of

the bounding walls. Microchannels with thin walls have been found to bring in moderate

improvement in heat transfer, of course for their lower thermal resistance. All these findings

provide important pointers for achieving better cooling performance for small electronic

devices through minor reorientation of existing configurations.

5. Nomenclature:

A: contact surface area of water and silicon, m2

Cp: specific heat, J kg-2 K-1

D: hydraulic diameter, m

f: friction factor

h: heat transfer coefficient, Wm-2 K-1

17
H: depth of the microchannel, m

k: thermal conductivity, Wm-1 K-1

L: overall length of the microchannel, m

Nu: Nusselt number

P: static pressure, Pa

Pr: Prandtl number of water

q: heat flux at the back surface of the silicon substrate, W/m_2

Re: Reynolds number

T: temperature, K

u: velocity, ms-1

uf: fluid velocity, ms-1

um: mean longitudinal velocity, ms -1

W: total width of microchannel plus lateral wall, m

p: pressure drop, Pa

Tw: conduction wall temperature, K

Tf: bulk fluid temperature, K.

hp: heated plate.

LVG: longitudinal vortex generator

VG: vortex generator

a: distance between the pair of Vortex generator

x, y, z: three coordinates shown in Fig. 1, m

Greek letter

: density, kg/m3

: dynamic viscosity, Pa s

18
Subscripts

ch: channel

f: fluid

in: inlet

o: straight microchannel

out: outlet

s: silicon

h: hydraulic

6. References:

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[16] M. Fiebig, P. Kallweit, N.K. Mitra, S. Tigglebeck, Heat transfer enhancement and drag

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longitudinal vortex generators, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 69 (2014) 203214.

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731.

22
Figure Captions

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of microchannel.

Fig. 2. (a) Comparison of present numerical results with experiment by Liu et al [20],

(b) Time evolution of velocity components at a point. (x =0.0002m, y=0.00003m,

z=0.0103m.) in S4 channel,

(c) Time evolution of velocity components at a point. (x =0.0002m, y=0.00003m,

z=0.0103m.) in S7 channel,

(d) Time evolution of velocity components at a point. (x =0.0002m, y=0.00003m,

z=0.0103m.) in S10 channel.

Fig. 3 Variations with Re in Channels S1 to S4 for (a) Nu/Nu0 , (b) f/f0 and (c) overall

performance.

Fig.4. Variations with Re in Channels S5 to S10 for (a) Nu/Nu0, (b) f/f0 and (c) overall

performance that includes the variation for S1 channel as well.

Fig. 5 Temperature contour of channel at height of 0.5H (a) S1 channel (b) S2 channel (c) S3

channel (d) S4 channel.

Fig.6.Axial-velocity contours at height of 0.5H at Re 800 and Channels (a) S1 (b) S2 (c) S3

(d) S4.

Fig.7. Limiting streamline and temperature contour bottom wall for (a) S1 channel, Re=400

(b) S4 channel, Re=400 (c) S1 channel, Re=750 (d) S4 channel, Re=750

Fig.8. Temperature contours of S5 channel at three different depths at Re 900 (a) Z=0.25H,

(b) Z=0.5H, (c) Z=0.75H.

23
Fig.9. Velocity contours in S5 channel at three different depths at Re 900 (a) Z=0.25H, (b)

Z=0.5H, (c) Z=0.75H.

Fig.10. Temperature contour of S5, S6and S7 channels in transverse direction at Re= 750 (a)

S5 channel, (b) S6 channel, (c) S7 channel

Fig.11. Temperature contour of different microchannels in transverse direction at Re=750 (a)

S4 channel, (b) S7 channel (c) S10 channel

Fig.12. Variation of heat transfer with Re in microchannels with conjugate heat transfer

Fig.13. Variation of heat transfer and friction factor in microchannels for constant top wall

temperatures of 323K and 350K .

Fig.14. Variation of heat transfer and friction factor in microchannels due to different

position of LVG.

Fig.15. Temperature contour of at Re=900 (a) P1 channel, (b) P2 channel, (c) P3 channel, (d)

P4 channel.

Table Captions

Table 1: Studied configuration of microchannels

Table-2: Variation of average Nusselt number at different ranges of grid at Re number 574.

Table 3: Studied configuration of microchannels with different thickness.

Table 4: Studied configuration of microchannels with different position of LVG.

24
Figure 1

25
Figure 2

(a)

(b)

26
(c)

(d)

27
Figure 3

(a)

(b)

(c)

28
Figure 4

(a)

(b)

(c)

29
Figure 5

30
Figure 6

31
Figure 7

S1, Re=400 (a) S4, Re=400 (b)

S1, Re=750 (c) S4, Re=750 (d)

32
Figure 8

33
Figure 9

34
Figure 10

35
Figure 11

36
Figure 12

37
Figure 13

38
Figure 14

39
Figure 15

40
Table -1:

Channel Identifier Angle of 1st pair of VG(1) Angle of 2nd pair of VG(2)
S0 Without LVG
S1 300 300
S2 300 450
S3 300 600
S4 300 750
S5 450 300
S6 450 600
S7 450 750
S8 600 300
S9 600 450
S10 600 750

Table-2

No. of cells 14,94000 837000 710656 578032 464849

Average Nusselt Number 7.527 7.58 7.59 7.69 7.66
Error 0 0.7% 0.8% 2.1% 1.7%

Table-3

Name of Thickness Thickness Distance of first LVG Gap between the LVG
channel of side wall of top wall and second LVG and symmetric line
T0 zero Zero 0.00533m, 0.009883m 100 m
T1 50 m 50 m 0.00533m, 0.009883m 100 m
T2 100 m 100 m 0.009883m
0.00533m, 0.009883m 100 m
T3 100 m 250 m 0.00533m, 0.009883m 100 m

Table 4:

Name of channel Distance of LVG1 Distance of LVG 2 Distance of LVG

from inlet from inlet from axis
P1 0.00533m 0.009883m 0.0001m
P2 0.0099m 0.0132m 0.0001m
P3 0.0132m 0.0155m 0.0001m
P4 0.0033m 0.0132m 0.0001m

41
Highlights:

Effect of angle of LVG on heat transfer and pressure drop in microchannel.

Effect of conjugate heat transfer in microchannel.
Significance of position of LVG on heat transfer.
The effect of thermo physical properties on heat transfer with the change of constant
temperature at the top wall.
Overall performances of microchannel with the different inclined LVG at different Re
have been shown.

42