Heat transfer enhancement by layering of two immiscible co-flows

Enhancement of heat transfer in minichannels due to co-flowing of two immiscible fluids in a direct contact is investigated in this work. Different fluid combinations are analyzed. The momentum and energy equations for both flows are solved analytically and numerically. The numerical and analytical solutions are found to be in good agreement. A parametric study including the influence of fluids relative viscosity, thermal conductivity, thermal capacity and height ratios is conducted for various Peclet numbers. Different ranges of the parameters that augment the heat transfer are obtained, and different physical aspects of the problem are discussed. For practical fluid combinations with small Peclet numbers, the enhancement factor can increase up to 2.6 folds. However, that increase is about 1.2 folds when the Peclet number is increased by two orders of magnitude. This work establishes the mechanisms for heat transfer enhancement utilizing two immiscible co-flows.