Experimental analysis of pressure drop and laminar to turbulent transition for gas flows in smooth microtubes

The results of numerical and experimental works dealing with the behavior of gas flow through microchannels are by no means univocal, sometimes agreeing with the classical correlations and other times contradicting them. It is now agreed upon that the effects due to both rarefaction and compressibility must be accounted for. In addition, the experimental works have demonstrated that sometimes compressibility and rarefaction effects can be coupled in microchannels: because these two actions contrast each other, the scatter of the friction factor data for gaseous flows is remarkably large. This paper is aimed at determining the friction factor for commercial short and long Peek microtubes with nominal internal diameters between 300 and 100 mu m and values of the length-to-diameter ratio, L/D, ranging between 167 and 5000. Nitrogen flows inside the microtubes, with a maximum value of the supply pressure equal to 10 bar. Very low Knudsen numbers (Kn < 0.001) are considered in order to uncouple the rarefaction effects from the compressibility effects. The role of the minor losses related to the inlet and outlet of the test section and of the gas compressibility on the friction factor are analyzed and discussed in order to draw their limit of significance in microchannels. In addition, the effects of the gas compressibility and of the L/D ratio on the critical Reynolds number for which the laminar to turbulent transition takes place will be analyzed and discussed by comparing the experimental results with the other data published in the literature.