Factors affecting temperature measurement using phase measurement interferometry in small scale devices

This paper presents full-field temperature measurements of buoyancy opposing mixed convection flow within a miniscale fluidic geometry. The technique used is phase measurement interferometry and a Mach–Zehnder layout is employed. The popular two-dimensional microfluidic geometry of three streams merging at a junction is chosen for this analysis. The apparatus set-up is described and measures taken to limit experimental errors discussed. Also presented, are corresponding flow visualization images for comparison with the interferometric results. The results are compared for similar boundary conditions over the range of Richardson numbers of 0.5–1.7. The results of the interferometric study are presented in the form of full-field temperature maps depicting the type of thermal plume structure present through isotherms and are seen to compare well with the results of the flow visualization study. Some factors affecting the measurement technique at this scale are then discussed. These include the effect of using different transparent materials for sealing the fluidic device and temporal vibrations caused by either varying boundary conditions or by slight pulsations in the flow supplied. Also, due to discrepancies that exist in the literature for the temperature coefficient of the refractive index of the working fluid, thermocouples are embedded in the flow field and used to convert the measured phase change to a corresponding temperature change. The corresponding values of refractive index change with temperature are discussed and compared to published values. Overall, PMI is demonstrated to provide excellent full-field temperature plots that can be used to measure local heat transfer rates from this non-intrusive measurement technique.