Numerical study on effect of sinusoidal roughness pattern on fluid flow through microchannels

Abstract

The present study aims at the analysis of surface roughness on fluid flow through mirochannels. Water is chosen as working fluid and the wall roughness was modeled using a cosine function. Two different roughness patterns were studied aligned and offset. A 2D analysis of the model is done utilizing the commercial software ANSYS Fluent. The variation of pressure drop and friction factor is studied at different roughness heights and Reynolds number. To validate the model the results are compared with data available in literature. Obtained value of friction factor is in good agreement with theoretical as well as numerical results. It has been observed that the offset pattern has the higher pressure drop and higher pumping power compared to the aligned pattern. Friction factor is also found to be higher in offset pattern.