Effect of Conjugate Heat Transfer on MEMS-Based Thermal Shear Stress Sensor

The effect of conjugate heat transfer resulting from a Micro-electromechanical Systems (MEMS)-based thermal shear stress is investigated. Due to the length scale disparity and large solid-fluid thermal conductivity ratio, a two-level computation is used to examine the relevant physical mechanisms and their influences on wall shear stress. The substantial variations in transport properties between the fluid and solid phases and their interplay in regard to heat transfer and near-wall fluid flow structures are investigated. It is demonstrated that for the state-of-the-art sensor design, the buoyancy effect can noticeably affect the accuracy of the shear stress measurement.   This paper was also originally published as part of the Proceedings of the ASME 2005 Pacific Rim Technical Conference and Exhibition on Integration and Packaging of MEMS, NEMS, and Electronic Systems.