LAUSR

Abstract This paper investigates the effects of viscous dissipation, pressure work, shear work, rarefaction and axial heat diffusion on convective heat transfer in a microtube gaseous flow. The problem is investigated numerically for the whole flow region using a finite difference scheme and the line Gauss-Seidel iterative technique. Exact solutions of the problem in terms of temperature distribution and Nusselt number variations are also derived under fully developed flow conditions. The microtube is assumed to be sufficiently long, so that fully developed conditions are established. The analysis presented demonstrate that the effect of the boundary shear work is significant and its contribution to heat transfer can be as high as that due to heat conduction close to the upper limit of the slip flow regime. As the shear work is a result of the combined effects of viscous dissipation and pressure work at the boundary, including these effects in the analysis leads to better predictions of heat transfer phenomena. Axial heat diffusion effect on Nusselt number and the thermal entrance length are also quantified.