Sensitivity Enhancement for Thermophysical Properties Measurements via the Vacuum Operation of Heater-integrated Fluidic Resonators

Abstract

Microscale thermophysical property measurements of liquids have been developed considering the increasing interest in the thermal management of cooling systems and energy storage/transportation systems. To accurately predict the heat transfer performance, information on the thermal conductivity, heat capacity, and density is required. However, a simultaneous analysis of the thermophysical properties of small-volume liquids has rarely been considered. Recently, we proposed a new methodology to simultaneously analyze the aforementioned three intrinsic properties using heater-integrated fluidic resonators (HFRs) in an atmospheric pressure environment comprising a microchannel, resistive heater/thermometer, and mechanical resonator. Typically, the thermal conductivity and volumetric heat capacity are measured based on a temperature response resulting from heating using a resistive thermometer, and the specific heat capacity can be obtained from the volumetric heat capacity by using a resonance densitometer. In this study, we analyze methods to improve the thermophysical property measurement performance using HFRs, focusing on the effect of the ambience around the sensor. The analytical method is validated using a numerical analysis, whose results agree well with preliminary experimental results. In a vacuum environment, the thermal conductivity measurement performance is enhanced, except for the thermal conductivity range of most gases, and the sensitivity of the specific heat capacity measurement is enhanced owing to an increase in the time constant.