Experimental study of convective heat transfer in additive manufactured minichannels: The impact of the roughness and Prandtl number

Additive Manufacturing, especially Laser-based Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF), can fabricate internal channels with enhanced cooling properties. Roughness is a natural consequence of the L-PBF process that can increase flow friction and also influence heat transfer in these cooling channels. While existing literature predominantly explores the impact of roughness on flow friction, less attention has been given to the effects on heat transfer. In this study, a novel experimental setup employing Joule heating was developed to investigate water flow in minichannels fabricated by L-PBF. The impact of roughness and different Prandtl numbers on flow friction and heat transfer was studied. The results indicated that the Nusselt number in rough channels scales with the Prandtl number to the power of 0.8 (Pr 0.8), suggesting greater heat transfer with higher Prandtl numbers for rough channels compared to those of smooth channels. At a specific combination of relative roughness and Reynolds number, the enhancement of heat transfer due to roughness is maximized.