INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF
ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
Volume 7, Issue 5, 2016 pp.435-442
Journal homepage: www.IJEE.IEEFoundation.org
ISSN 2076-2895 (Print), ISSN 2076-2909 (Online) ©2016 International Energy & Environment Foundation. All rights reserved.
Numerical validation of the thermal quadrupoles method
for a flow in a microchannel
Sabrine Mejri
1
, Olivier Fudym
2
, Jalila Sghaier
1
, Ahmed Bellagi
1
1
Research unit of heat and thermodynamics of industrial processes, National Engineering School of
Monastir, Rue Ibn Al Jazzar 5000 Monastir, Tunisia.
2
Research Center of Albi in Process Engineering, Divided Solids, Energy and Environment Ecole des
Mines d'Albi Campus Jarlard - Route de Teillet, 81013 Albi CT Cedex 09, France.
Abstract
The main objective of this work is to investigate and validate the thermal quadrupole method, used in
this paper as a semi-analytical method to solve the equations of a falling film in a heated microchannel
studied experimentally. In the experimental section, we created a temperature gradient within the liquid,
while monitoring the temperature using an infrared camera. Then, a numerical model is established and
solved by the thermal quadrupole method. Finally, we conclude with a comparison between the
experiments and the numerical study.
Copyright © 2016 International Energy and Environment Foundation - All rights reserved.
Keywords: Falling film; Micro-channel; Thermal quadrupole.
1. Introduction
Miniaturization is currently a promising field of both theoretical and experimental research [1, 2]. It is to
reduce the dimensions of some industrial equipment in order to reduce the technological constraints in favor
of environmental chemistry and processes safety [3]. It is targeting, in general, refrigeration equipments, air
conditioning and heat pumps which have their effects on the environment, the layer ozone and global
warming [4]. Thus, came the idea of increasing processes. This means: developing and creating methods and
devices offering improved production quality, reducing the size / capacity, lowering effluent quantities and /
or catalysts, and reducing costs and energy losses with a greater respect for environmental constraints [5].
Micro-reactors operate on the principle of a continuous process and are highly different from those several
traditional characteristics such that the increase of the exchange surface through the ratio S / V [6], the
improvement of heat and mass transfer and a high temperature gradient and pressure [7, 8]. They help
maintain better control of reaction conditions, improved security conditions, the gain in energy and reducing
congestion [9]. The falling films are generally used as an intermediary for the transfer of heat and mass
transfer [10, 11] in industrial equipment such as condensers and the evaporation towers [12, 13]. An
extension of thermal quadrupole formalism is proposed for the modeling of heat conduction in
heterogeneous environments, where the change in thermal properties is one-dimensional [14]. The main
problem was to find an intrinsic relationship between generalized temperature and heat flux at the boundary
of a heterogeneous medium.