Numerical investigation of friction factor and mass flow rate through microchannels with non-Newtonian fluid flow

In this study, numerical simulations were performed using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) software Comsol to investigate single phase flow in fused silica microtubes with diameters from 75 to 250 μm. The working fluids used in all conditions are Deionized water (DI water) and the polyacrylamide (PAM) solution. The effect of working fluids and channel size on friction factor and mass flow rate are presented and analyzed. The results of numerical simulations showed that the friction factor and mass flow rate for DI water in smooth fused silica microchannels were in good agreement with experimental while relatively large average percentage deviations for PAM solution was observed. In addition, the entrance length effect causes the numerical simulation to deviate from the experimental values at large dimension channels.

Keywords:

CFD , Non-Newtonian fluid , Microchannel , Pressure drop , Mass flow rate , DI water , PAM