Fluid flow and heat transfer performance in a micro-reactor with non-uniform micro-pin-fin arrays for hydrogen production at low Reynolds number

To improve the flow and heat transfer performance of micro-reactors with micro-pin-fin arrays (MPFAR), a micro-reactor with non-uniform micro-pin-fin arrays (NMPFAR) was proposed. To investigate its flow and heat transfer characteristic at low Reynolds number, the Navier-Stokes and energy equations in the NMPFAR were established. Simulated results indicated that the NMPFAR has the better heat transfer performance than micro-reactors with staggered and aligned micro-pin-fin arrays. Also, the heat transfer performance of three different NMPFARs with two, four and eight kinds of pin diameter was investigated by numerical simulation. Results showed the Nusselt number is larger when the change of pin diameter in NMPFAR is less, which means the NMPFAR with two kinds of pin diameter has the better heat transfer performance. Meanwhile, the experiments were carried out for validating the simulation model, and the experimental results agreed well with the simulated ones. The research result shows that the NMPFAR does have the merit for enhancing flow and heat transfer performance of the micro-reactor with micro-pin-fin arrays.