NUMERICAL STUDY OF PRESSURE DROP AND FLUID FRICTION IN LAMINAR FLOW RECTANGULAR MICROCHANNELS

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  Hayder Mohammed Hasan   |   

An incompressible three-dimensional continuity and Navier-Stokes (momentum equations) equations are numerically solved to obtain the pressure drop and fluid friction in the laminar steady state micro-channel flow of water. The governing equations are solved by using a SIMPLE algorithm with finite volume method and FORTRAN code to obtain pressure field in rectangular micro-channel and then from the pressure field both friction factor f and friction constant Cf are obtained. The results showed that the factors affecting the pressure drop, friction factor f, and friction constant Cf are; channel length L, Reynolds number Re, aspect ratio α, channel volume chV, and hydraulic diameter hD. Increasing channel length L leads to an increase in each pressure drop, f, and Cf. On another hand, increasing Re leads to increase pressure drop and decreases the f, while the Cf increase with a low value of Re (Re less than 50) and then nearby with an approximately constant value. Moreover, increasing of α, chV, and hD each separately leads to decrease pressure drop and increase both f and Cf.