HMTMIC: Heat and mass transfer in micro-channels

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 02.0094

Key words (English)

Education; Training; Scientific Research; Social Aspects

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: HPRN-CT-2002-00204

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 4.1.1 Research training networks

Short description (English)

See abstract

Further information (English)

Full name of research-institution/enterprise:
EPF Lausanne
Laboratory of Heat and Mass Transfer

Abstract (English)

For almost all technical processes the thermal control is an important factor. Today, the miniaturization of technical devices for various industrial applications leads to severe thermal problems which can affect the efficiency of the devices or even destroy them. For an effective thermal control it is necessary to adjust the size of the heat transfer components to the same extent.
Generally , these micro-thermal devices work in the same way than conventional heat exchangers, cooling or heating a solid state or a fluid by one- or two-phase heat transfer to a working fluid. The major difference can be found in the dimension and the structure of the heat transfer area. Typical designs are e.g. heat exchangers with subsurface channels and cavities, extrusions or small tubes, all with dimensions of about 1 mm or smaller, in contrast to macroscale structures with channel sizes in the range from 5 mm to 50 mm. Due to the small dimensions of the flow channels of the micro-thermal devices other heat transfer phenomena are dominant, compared with those occurring in wider channels. The known conventional calculation and design methods for macroscale heat exchangers cannot be used for microscale heat exchangers and so new methods and design tools have to be developed. Therefore an experimental program to investigate the heat transfer phenomena at single-phase flow, evaporation and condensation using micro-thermal heat exchanger elements is needed. These experiments will provide experimental data to create new design tools, e.g. heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop but also visualisation results with important: informations about heat transfer phenomena and flow regimes, which can be used for numerical models. The results will be used to improve existing micro-thermal devices and to increase the efficiency of technical processes controlled by these devices.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 02.0094