International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 77 (2014) 257–261

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

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Technical Note

Data reduction of friction factor of compressible flow in micro-channels

D. Kawashima, Y. Asako ⇑
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper focuses on data reduction of friction factor of compressible fluid flowing through micro-
Received 13 March 2013 channels. The both pressure and temperature are required to calculate the friction factor of compressible
Received in revised form 21 February 2014 flow. Therefore, in the past data reduction of many experiments, the friction factors have been obtained
Accepted 11 May 2014
under the assumption of isothermal flow since temperature measurement of compressible flow in micro-
channels is quite difficult due to the experimental technique limitation. The authors find that the temper-
ature of the fluid can be obtained from the pressure under the assumption of one dimensional flow in an
Keywords:
adiabatic channel (Fanno flow). In this paper, the temperatures obtained by our proposed equation are
Micro-channel
Gaseous flow
compared with results of numerical simulations and friction factors are also compared.
Gas temperature Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Friction factor

1. Introduction
Design and fabrication of MEMS (micro electro mechanical sys-
tem) has increased the needs for understanding of fluid flow and
heat transfer in micro flow devices such as micro-valves, micro-
heat-exchangers, micro-heat-sinks, micro-reactors and many other
micro-fluid systems. Since the early work of Tuckerman and Pease
[1], many experimental and numerical investigations of fluid flow
and heat transfer in a micro-channel have been undertaken.
However, there seems to be few experimental investigations on
the friction factor of compressible gas flow in a micro-channel
comparing with that for liquid flow.
The Darcy friction factor is defined as
2d dpave
fd ¼
qave u2ave dx
In the case of liquid flow, the density is only a function of temper-
ature and it does not change with pressure. Therefore, the Darcy
friction factor can be obtained from the mass flow rate, the pressure
drop between two pressure ports and temperature at any location.
However, in the case of compressible flow, the density is a function
of temperature and pressure. Therefore, in addition, temperatures
should be measured at the locations of pressure ports.
Wu and Little [2] measured the pressure differences between
near the inlet and near the outlet of smooth channels and rough
channels to obtain the average friction factor of nitrogen, argon
and helium gas flows. However, the temperature treatment was
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 42 677 2711; fax: +81 42 677 2701.
E-mail address: asako@tmu.ac.jp (Y. Asako).
not mentioned in the paper. Choi et al. [3] performed experiments
for laminar and turbulent nitrogen gas flows in smooth silica tubes
to obtain the average friction factor between the inlet and the out-
let of the tube. They used an assumption to calculate the average
friction factor that the outlet Mach number is unity. However,
the outlet Mach number is not always unity. Li et al. [4] obtained
the average friction factors between the inlet and outlet for nitro-
gen gas flow in micro-tubes. However, the temperature treatment
was not mentioned in the paper.
Turner et al. [5] measured the pressures of nitrogen gas flow at
five locations along the channel but only the average friction factor
between the first and the last pressure taps under the assumption
of the isothermal flow was reported. Asako et al. [6] obtained
quasi-local friction factors from Turner’s pressure data under the
assumption of the isothermal flow and compared them with their
ð1Þ
numerically obtained friction factors. Asako et al. [7] performed
experiments to obtain quasi-local friction factors of laminar gas
flow in fused silica tubes of nominal diameter of 150 lm by using
the tube cutting method. They assumed the isothermal flow. They
also performed a numerical investigation and obtained the f  Re
correlation as a function of Mach number in the range of Ma < 0.4.
Tang et al. [8] measured the pressure differences between the
inlet and the outlet of fused silica and stainless steel micro-chan-
nels and obtained the average friction factors of nitrogen gas flow
under the assumption of the isothermal flow. A f  Re correlation is
obtained from average friction factors between the inlet and the
outlet as a function of the average Mach number.
Morini et al. [9,10] performed experiments to investigate the
compressibility effect on the average friction factor of the nitrogen
gas flow in micro-tubes with diameters of 100–300 lm. They

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2014.05.009
0017-9310/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
258 D. Kawashima, Y. Asako / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 77 (2014) 257–261

Nomenclature

A cross sectional area, m2 c specific heat ratio, –

Cp specific heat at constant pressure, J/(kg K) k thermal conductivity, W/(m K)
d micro-tube diameter, m l viscosity, Pa s
fd Darcy friction factor, – q density, kg/m3
f modified Fanning friction factor, – s shear stress, Pa
fm mean modified Fanning friction factor, – / dissipation function, W/m3
G_ mass flow rate per unit area, kg/(s m2)
i specific internal energy, J/kg Subscript
k turbulence energy, m2/s2 ave cross sectional average value
L micro-tube length, m eq.(5) value calculated from Eq. (5)
‘ distance between pressure ports, m eq.(13) value calculated from Eq. (13)
m _ mass flow rate, kg/s in inlet
Ma Mach number, – num value calculated from numerical result
p static pressure, Pa out outlet of micro-tube
r, x coordinates, m stg stagnation value
R gas constant, J/(kg K)
Re Reynolds number, – Superscript
T static temperature, K
Reynolds-averaged value
tu turbulent intensity, – ~ Favre-averaged value
u, v velocity components, m/s
a kinetic energy correction factor, –

obtained the average friction factor under the assumption of the
isothermal flow and their results were compared with the f  Re
correlation proposed by Asako et al. [7]. Lorenzini et al. [11] also
obtained the average friction factor of laminar, transitional and
turbulent nitrogen gas flows through long micro-tubes under the
assumption of the isothermal flow. The entrance effect might be
negligible small since the tubes are long enough. In the turbulent
regime, the friction factors for the smooth tubes are in good agree-
ment with the prediction of the Blasius correlation, while for the
rough tubes the agreement between the experimentally obtained
friction factors and the predictions from the Colebrook correlation
was not good.
Recently, Matsushita et al. [12] measured the pressures of tur-
bulent nitrogen gas flow at five locations along a micro-tube. The
micro-tube was fabricated in a stainless steel block by electrical
discharge machining (EDM) and five pressure ports which lead to
the pressure transducers, were also fabricated. They obtained
quasi-local friction factors of turbulent nitrogen gas flow from
pressure data under the assumption of the isothermal flow.
As can be seen from the literature survey, the most experimen-
tal studies obtained average values of friction factors between the
inlet and the outlet. However, in the case of gaseous flow, the flow
accelerates in a micro-channel due to the pressure drop and the
local values of the friction factor is important for understanding
of flow phenomena through a micro-channel. And also there seems
to be no experimental study to measure the fluid temperature.
Temperature measurement of high speed compressible flow in a
micro-channel is quite difficult due to the experimental technique
limitation. Thermocouples placed in a flow passage to measure the
gas temperature cause flow reduction. To avoid this, thermocou-
ples should be very thin. Besides, if a thin thermocouple is placed
in a high-speed gas flow, the gas flow stops on the thermocouple
surface. This results in temperature rise due to the energy conver-
sion from the kinetic energy to thermal energy. However, the gas
moves in the vicinity of the thermocouple and the gas temperature
keeps low. The temperature gradient is formed in the vicinity of
the thermocouple. Therefore, the thermocouple placed in the
high-speed gas flow indicates temperature between the static tem-
perature and the total temperature. Then, the static or total gas
temperature cannot be measured by inserting the thermocouple.
This is the motivation of the present study. The authors find
that the fluid temperature of one dimensional flow in an adiabatic
channel can be obtained by solving a quadratic equation for tem-
perature when the pressure is known. This flow is called as Fanno
flow. In this paper, the temperatures obtained by solving our pro-
posed quadratic equation are compared with results of numerical
simulations and friction factors are also compared to validate the
proposed quadratic equation.
2. Derivation of quadratic equation for fluid temperature
Here, we consider one-dimensional compressible fluid flow in a
micro-channel with adiabatic walls to derive an equation for the
cross sectional average fluid temperature. An ideal gas is assumed.
The continuity equation and the equation of state are
qave uave ¼ qin uin ð2Þ
pave
qave ¼ ð3Þ
RT ave
The energy equation for such flow is
u2ave u2
C p T ave þ a ¼ C p T in þ in ð4Þ
2 2
where a is the kinetic energy correction factor. It is usual to take 2
for laminar flow and 1 for turbulent flow and these values were
used for the calculations. Note that the velocity profile at the tube
inlet is assumed to be uniform, then the kinetic energy correction
factor at the inlet does not appear on the right hand side of Eq.
(4). Substituting Eqs. (2) and (3) into Eq. (4), the quadratic equation
for the fluid temperature, Tave, is obtained.
 
q2in u2in R2 u2
a T 2ave þ T ave  T in þ in ¼ 0 ð5Þ
2C p p2ave 2C p
The cross sectional average fluid temperature can be obtained by
solving the quadratic equation, Eq. (5) where the pave is the cross
sectional average pressure at the same location and must be known.
The modified Fanning friction factor (four times of Fanning fric-
tion factor) for the Fanno flow can be obtained by the following
 D. Kawashima, Y. Asako / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 77 (2014) 257–261 259

equation which is derived from the continuity equation, the Table 1

momentum equation and the equation of state with assumptions Physical properties used for computations.

of one-dimensional flow and the ideal gas. R 296.7 J/(kg  K)

      Cp 1.040  103 J/(kg  K)
8sw 2d dpave 2d dpave 2d dT ave c 1.399
f ¼ ¼   ð6Þ
qu2ave pave dx qave u2ave dx T ave dx l 1.787  105 Pa  s

The mean friction factor between the pressure ports can be

expressed by the integrated form of Eq. (6) as
( ! computations are tabulated in Table 1. Attention will now be
Z  )
1 x2
d p2ave; 1  p2ave; 2 pave; 1 T ave; 1 focused on the calculation of the Reynolds number and Mach num-
fm ¼ f dx ¼  2 ln þ 2 ln
‘ x1 ‘ R T ave G_ 2 pave; 2 T ave; 2 ber that will be defined as

ð7Þ uave d uave

Re ¼ ; Ma ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð11Þ
where
l=qave cðc  1Þiave
T ave;1 þ T ave;2 where uave, qave and iave are the cross sectional average velocity,
T ave ¼ ð8Þ
2 density and specific internal energy as
Z Z ,Z
d=2 d=2 d=2
8
3. Validation of Eq. (5) uave ¼ 2
~ dr;
ru qave ¼ q ru~ dr ~ dr; pave
ru
d 0 0 0
Z d=2
The cross sectional average fluid temperature obtained by solv- 8 1 pave pave
¼  dr;
rp iave ¼ ; T ave ¼ ð12Þ
ing Eq. (5) will be compared with the fluid temperature of gas flow 2
d 0 c  1 qave R qave
in a micro-tube obtained by two-dimensional numerical simula-
Note that the Re is constant along the tube but the Ma varies along
tion to validate Eq. (5). And also the friction factor obtained from
the tube.
Eq. (7) will be compared with the friction factor obtained by the
The simulation code used is SALE [15]. This code is based on the
numerical simulation. Both the turbulent and laminar flow cases
ALE (Arbitrary-Lagrangian–Eulerian) method. The detailed descrip-
will be compared. The schematic diagram of gaseous flow in a
tion of the ALE method is documented and will not be explained
micro-tube for numerical simulation is depicted in Fig. 1. The
here. In SALE, the computational domain is divided into quadrilat-
numerical analyses are performed under the assumption of steady
eral cells. The velocity components are assigned at the vertices of
and axisymmetric flow. Compressible fluid flows into a micro-tube
the cell and the other values such as pressure, specific internal
from a reservoir at the stagnation pressure pstg and the stagnation
energy (temperature), and density are assigned at the cell centers.
temperature Tstg, and flows out to the atmosphere at the pressure,
The number of cells was chosen referring the previous studies
pout (105 Pa). The governing equation for laminar flow can be easily
[6,13]. The number of cells in the x-direction was 300 for both
found in the literature and will not be given here. The governing
laminar and turbulent cases. The cell size gradually increased in
equations and the turbulence model for turbulent flow are
the x-direction to the mid of the tube and it gradually decreased
documented in our previous paper [13]. Therefore, those are not
to the outlet. The number of cells in the r-direction was 30 for both
mentioned here to avoid duplication.
laminar and turbulent cases. The cell size in r-direction gradually
The values of velocity, pressure, temperature and density at the
increased from the tube wall to the center in the case of the turbu-
tube inlet are evaluated by the stagnation treatment proposed by
lent flow, however, in the case of the laminar flow the grid size in
Karki [14].
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi the r-direction is identical. The ALE method is a time marching
!c u 8 !ðc1Þ=c 9
 c=ðc1Þ u < = method. The value of 104 was used for the convergence criterion
pin qin T in u2cRT stg pin of Newton–Raphson iteration.
¼ ¼ ; uin ¼ t 1
pstg qstg T stg c1 : pstg ;

ð9Þ 4. Results and discussion

The static pressure at the inlet was obtained from linear extrapola-
tion from the interior of the computational domain. The inlet veloc-
ity, the inlet density and the inlet temperature can be determined
by substituting the extrapolated inlet pressure into Eq. (9). k and
e at the inlet is determined as a function of the turbulent intensity,
tu, as
Numerical simulations for the laminar flow were conducted for
micro-tubes of d = 80 lm and L = 14, 30 and 40 mm. And also the
numerical simulations for the turbulent flow were conducted for
micro-tubes of d = 400 lm and L = 70 and 150 mm. The numerical
computations were conducted with various stagnation pressures.

kin ¼ 1:5ðtu uin Þ2 ; ein ¼ 0:1k2in ð10Þ 4.1. Comparison of cross sectional average fluid temperature

and tu = 0.05 was used for all computations. The working fluid was The cross sectional average pressure of the numerical result can
assumed to be nitrogen gas. The physical properties used for be calculated from Eq. (12). Substituting this cross sectional aver-
age pressure into Eq. (5) and solving the quadratic equation, the
cross sectional average fluid temperature of the Fanno flow,
Tave,eq.(5), can be obtained. Such the cross sectional average fluid
adiabatic wall pout temperature obtained by solving Eq. (5), Tave,eq.(5) and the cross-
pstg r average fluid temperature of the numerical result, Tave,num, are
x d
Tstg plotted in Figs. 2 and 3, as a function of the axial location. These
are the results for the laminar flow of pstg = 400 kPa and Tstg = 300 K
L
Reservoir and for the turbulent flow of pstg = 300 kPa and Tstg = 300 K, respec-
tively. The tube diameter and length are indicated in the figures. As
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of a problem. can be seen in Fig. 3, Tave,eq.(5) for the turbulent flow case agrees
260 D. Kawashima, Y. Asako / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 77 (2014) 257–261

300 0.8 2

280

d = 80 µm L = 14 mm 0.6
260 pstg = 400 kPa Tstg = 300 K
Tave (K)

u/uave
Ma
numerical result 1
Eq. (5)
240 isothermal d = 80 µm L = 14 mm
isentropic pstg = 400 kPa Tstg = 300 K
0.4
x = 0.00808 m
220 numerical result
parabolic profile
Ma (numerical result)
200 0.2 0
0 0.004 0.008 0.012 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
x (m) r/(d/2)

Fig. 2. Tave and Ma number as a function of x (laminar flow case). Fig. 4. Typical velocity profile of laminar flow at x = 0.00808 m.

300 0.8
20

280
d = 400 µm L = 70 mm 0.6

T - Tnum (K)
pstg = 300 kPa Tstg = 300 K 0
Tave (K)

d = 400 µm, L = 70 mm
Ma

260 numerical result

Eq. (5) pstg = 200 ~ 400 kPa
isothermal Tstg = 300 K
isentropic -20
0.4 Eq. (5)
240 isentropic
isothermal

Ma (numerical result)
-40
220 0.2
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
x (m) Ma

Fig. 3. Tave and Ma number as a function of x (turbulent flow case). Fig. 5. Deviations of temperatures under various assumptions.

well with Tave,num. However, slight discrepancies can be seen in the
laminar flow case (Fig. 2). The velocity profile of the laminar flow at
x = 0.00808 m is plotted in Fig. 4. As seen in Fig. 4, the velocity pro-
file is more flatten comparing with the parabolic profile. This is the
reason why the cross sectional average fluid temperature obtained
by solving Eq. (5), Tave,eq.(5), is slightly lower than the numerical
result. In the laminar flow case, the energy correction factor of 2
estimates slightly higher kinetic energy.
The temperatures obtained under the assumptions of the
isothermal flow and the isentropic flow are also plotted in the
figures. These temperatures are calculated from the following
equations.
isothermal flow : T ave ¼ T in
 c1
p c
isentropic flow : T ave ¼ T in
pin
The temperatures obtained under the assumptions of the isother-
mal flow deviates from Tave,num as increasing the Ma number. Also
large discrepancies between the temperatures obtained under the
assumptions of the isentropic flow and Tave,num, can be seen in Figs. 2
and 3.
The deviations of the various calculated temperatures from
value obtained from the numerical simulation as a function of
Mach number are plotted in Fig. 5. These are the results for the
tube of d = 400 lm, L = 70 mm, varying the stagnation pressure
from 200 to 400 kPa. As seen from the figure, the maximum devi-
ation of the temperature obtained from Eq. (5) is 3.25 K. Whereas,
the large deviation can be seen for the temperatures obtained
under the assumptions of the isentropic flow and the isothermal
flow.
4.2. Comparison of Fanning friction factor
Substituting the cross sectional average fluid temperature
obtained by solving Eq. (5), Tave,eq.(5) into Eqs. (6), (7), the modified
Fanning friction factor, feq.(5) or fm,eq.(5) can be obtained. The mean
friction factors, fm,eq.(5) between adjacent grids are plotted in Fig. 5
as a function of Re number. The friction factors of the present
numerical results are also plotted in the figure. Murakami et al.
[13] conducted numerical computations for turbulent gas flow in
an adiabatic micro-tube and they obtained the modified Fanning
friction factors, fnum from Eq. (6) for wide ranges of Re and Ma num-
bers. Those results are also plotted in the figure. Note that fm from
Eq. (7) is the mean friction factor between two locations of the
cross-sections, however, it agrees well with the local friction factor
ð13Þ f from Eq. (6) when two locations of the cross-sections used for the
calculation of fm are very close. Therefore, the mean friction factors
obtained from Eqs. (5) and (7), fm,eq.(5) in Fig. 6 can be compared
with the local friction factor obtained by Murakami et al. The mod-
ified Fanning friction factor of the incompressible laminar flow and
Blasius formula are also plotted in the figure.
In the laminar flow region, slight discrepancies between the
fm,eq.(5) and the fnum can be seen for the case of Ma = 0.5. This is
due to poor prediction of the cross sectional average fluid temper-
ature. The cross sectional average fluid temperature obtained by
solving Eq. (5) is slightly lower than the numerically obtained tem-
perature (see Fig. 2), since the kinetic energy collection factor of 2
is used. In the turbulent flow region, the fm,eq.(5) and the present
numerical result, fnum agree well. The availability of Eq. (5) is vali-
dated from this fact. The fm,eq.(5) agrees well with the fnum by Mura-
kami et al. in the range of Re < 8000. However, the fm,eq.(5) in the
range of Re > 8000 deviates from fnum by Murakami et al. Note that
the Mach number of the fnum by Murakami et al. are results in the
 D. Kawashima, Y. Asako / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 77 (2014) 257–261 261

0.2 is derived from the equation of state, continuity and energy equa-
Ma = 0.5 turbulent flow
0.3
tions for one-dimensional compressible flow in a micro-channel
fnum by Murakami et al.
fm,eq(5) Ma=0.3 ~ 0.5 with adiabatic walls.
0.1 fm,eq(5) Ma=0.6 ~ 0.8
fnum Ma=0.3 ~ 0.8
(1) The fluid temperature obtained by solving the proposed qua-
Ma = 0.3 ~ 0.5 dratic equation agrees well with the cross sectional average
f

f = 64 / Re temperature obtained by the two-dimensional numerical

0.04
simulation. However, slight discrepancies can be seen in
the laminar flow case.
laminar flow
0.02 (2) The modified friction factor obtained from Eqs. (5) and (7)
fm,eq(5) Ma=0.5 f = 0.3164 Re-0.25
fm,eq(5) Ma=0.3 agrees well with the friction factor obtained by the numeri-
500 1000 5000 10000 cal simulation.
Re (3) Both the modified friction factors obtained under the
assumptions of the isothermal and isentropic flows, deviate
Fig. 6. f as a function of Re. from the values by the numerical simulation as increasing
Ma number.

0.1
0.7
References
0.6
0.05 0.5
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5. Conclusions

The quadratic equation for the cross sectional average temper-

ature of compressible flow in a micro-channel with adiabatic walls