Large Convective Heat Transfer Enhancement in Microchannels With a Train of Coflowing Immiscible or Colloidal Droplets

Abstract

We show that heat transfer in microchannels can be considerably augmented by introducing droplets or slugs of an immiscible liquid into the main fluid flow. We numerically investigate the influence of differently shaped colloidal or simply pure immiscible droplets to the main liquid flow on the thermal transport in microchannels. Results of parametric studies on the influence of all major factors connected to microchannel heat transfer are presented. The effect of induced Marangoni flow at the liquid interfaces is also taken into account and quantified. The calculation of the multiphase, multispecies flow problem is performed, applying a front tracking method, extended to account for nanoparticle transport in the suspended phase when relevant. This study reveals that the use of a second suspended liquid (with or without nanoparticles) is an efficient way to significantly increase the thermal performance without unacceptably large pressure losses. In the case of slug-train coflow, the Nusselt number can be increased by as much as 400% compared with single liquid flow.