Elastic turbulence influences and convective heat transfer within a miniature viscous disk pump

Elastic turbulence is employed within the present investigation to enhance convective heat transfer at very small scales and at very low Reynolds numbers. A miniature viscous disk pump or VDP is utilized to investigate flow and heat transfer, where the latter are based upon energy balance measurements which utilize the mixed-mean temperature at the inlet and outlet of the viscous disk pump passage. The overall heat transfer rate is determined based upon a constant surface temperature thermal boundary condition, and upon a log-mean-temperature difference approach. The VDP operates at rotation speeds of 500 RPM, 1000 RPM, 1500 RPM, 1800 RPM, and 2000 RPM, which produce overall shear rates across the flow cross section of 146.05 1/s, 292.1 1/s, 438.15 1/s, 525.78 1/s, and 584.2 1/s. A channel depth of 640 μm is employed. Elastic turbulence is induced by adding polyacrylamide to water solutions with 65% sucrose by mass. Significant enhancements of mixing and transport are observed, which are associated with the onset and development of elastic turbulence. Such behavior is verified, relative to an increased viscosity Boger fluid, using flow visualization results, rheometer viscosity variations with shear rate, and increases of overall magnitudes of convective heat transfer coefficient, which are augmented by as high as 240%. These comparisons are assessed relative to the Newtonian Boger fluid (which generally does not change viscosity as shear rate varies) at the same rotation speed, shear rate, flow passage height, and inlet temperature. As polymer concentration increases, elastic turbulence effects become more pronounced, and heat transfer coefficient magnitudes increase. This occurs such that Nusselt number ratios are strongly correlated with the mean-square magnitude of scalar temperature fluctuations at the outlet of the VDP. As a result, remarkable heat transfer coefficient enhancements due to elastic turbulence are demonstrated.