• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.439-447
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• 2002

The microchannel flow in miniature TCDs (thermal conductivity detectors) is investigated numerically. The solutions based on the boundary layer approximation are not very accurate in the region of the duct inlet for low Reynolds numbers. In this study, two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations are considered to analyze the gas flow in a miniature TCD. Effects of channel size, inlet and boundary conditions on the heat transfer rate are examined. When the gas stream is not preheated, the distances for a miniature TCD to reach the conduction-dominant region for duct flow are found to be approximately two and three times the thermal entry length for duct flow with constant properties, respectively, leer constant wall temperature and constant wall heat flux boundary conditions. If the gas temperature at the channel inlet is close to the mean gas temperature in the conduction-dominant region, the entrance region is much shorter compared to other cases considered in this study.