Study of the Correspondence of the Thermal Convection Equations System in the Boussinesq Approximation to the Flow Model in a Microtube During PCR

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17072/1993-0550-2026-2-75-87

Keywords:

system of thermal convection equations, Boussinesq approximation, OpenFOAM, microtube

Abstract

This paper addresses convective flow in a standard polypropylene microtube used for polymerase chain reaction. Recent studies show that the reaction can be performed in the tube itself without the use of specialized temperature maintenance devices, however this will result in a convective flow with a wide range of temperature ranges in the tube. This characteristic poses concerns about the suitability of using the Boussinesq approximation because of the possible significant variation of the thermophysical properties of the liquid. In the course of a series of computational experiments using the OpenFOAM software package, identical solutions were obtained using solvers for both the Boussinesq model and the equation of state that takes into account the variation of liquid density, thermal conductivity and viscosity. A closer analysis shows that the solutions match even for insignificant components of the singular value decomposition. It is concluded that the use of a model based on the Boussinesq approximation is sufficient for the given case.

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Published

2026-07-13

How to Cite

Study of the Correspondence of the Thermal Convection Equations System in the Boussinesq Approximation to the Flow Model in a Microtube During PCR. (2026). BULLETIN OF PERM UNIVERSITY. MATHEMATICS. MECHANICS. COMPUTER SCIENCE, 2 (73), 75-87. https://doi.org/10.17072/1993-0550-2026-2-75-87

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