Exploring the role of surface slip and flow modulation in enhancing heat transfer in nanochannels

XJ Xu and CC Lu and SC Li and YT Pan and MQ Zhu and WB Wan and X Zhang and NJ Hao and YL Wang and JH Zhao and Z Li and HY He and N Wei, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THERMAL SCIENCES, 218, 110177 (2025).

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2025.110177

Surface slip is known to reduce dissipative energy losses in mass transport, but its effect on convective heat transfer in nanochannels has been less explored. This study investigates the impact of surface slip on heat transfer in molecular dynamics simulations of argon flow through smooth and rough silicon, and graphene-coated silicon channels. In smooth graphene-coated channels, a linear relationship is observed between interfacial temperature jump and flow velocity, with higher velocities enhancing heat transfer. In contrast, flow velocity does not affect heat transfer in silicon channels. For rough channels, graphene coating has minimal impact. Introducing a small baffle in smooth graphene-coated silicon channels significantly alters heat transfer, with a velocity-dependent linear relationship. Analyses reveal that surface slip facilitates particle exchange in the thermal boundary layer, improving heat flux and temperature jump. Conversely, fluid-wall collisions and compression-expansion effects at rough surfaces increase the incoming fluid's temperature, reducing heat transfer efficiency. These findings highlight surface slip's role in enhancing thermal transport and provide insights for designing micronanofluidic devices to improve thermal management.

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