Effect of variable fluid properties on the hydrodynamic and thermal characteristics of parallel flow microchannel heat exchanger

In this paper the parallel flow microchannel heat exchanger is numerically investigate and the effect of treating the properties of fluids as variables with temperature compared with constant fluid properties assumption on its performance is studied. A numerical simulation is made to solve 3D Navier stock equations in two fluids with temperature dependent properties and 3D energy equation in two fluids and solid walls taking into account the effect of entrance region and axial conduction in the walls. The properties entered to the main program by relations as a function of temperature using subroutines written to calculate the properties at the end of each iteration. The results obtained show that, treating the properties as a temperature dependent gives higher overall performance since it leads to obtain lower pressure drop and higher effectiveness compared with constant properties assumption.