Convective heat transfer in a composite trapezoidal microchannel during magnetic heating

The analysis of conjugate heat transfer in a composite channel of trapezoidal cross-section is presented. The channel is formed by etching a silicon < 100> wafer and bonding that with a slab of gadolinium. Gadolinium is a magnetic material that exhibits high temperature rise during adiabatic magnetization around its transition temperature of 295 K. Heat is generated in the substrate by the application of a magnetic field. A thorough investigation of heat transfer coefficient at the solid–fluid interface is performed by varying the channel aspect ratio, the thickness of gadolinium slab, spacing between channels in the heat exchanger, Reynolds number, and the magnetic field strength. The results are validated by comparing with existing results for single material channels.