The evolutionary design of cooling a plate with one stream

Here we show the performance of a cooling system consisting of one stream that morphs while embedded in a square plate heated uniformly. Several configurations are considered in order to establish the evolutionary direction in which the thermal performance of the cooling system is improving. First, serpentine shapes are considered. The total length of serpentine length is fixed, and the number of meanders is varied. The stream inlet and outlet are free to migrate on the perimeter of the heated plate. The results show that the serpentine with four elbows maintains lower peak temperatures when the inlet and the outlet of the duct are positioned in the middle of the side of the plate. We report the configuration in which the thermal conductance is maximum. Second, we analyzed the effect of various loop cooling configurations such as square, circular and clover leaf. Each loop is centered on the center of the plate, and its length is free to vary. The minimum peak temperature is achieved when the length of the circular loop is Lc = 2.5 L, and when the length of the square loop is Lc = 2.8 L. The clover leaf designs show even better performance.

Duke Scholars

Author Adrian Bejan Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materia ...