Paper presented at the 5th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 1-4 July, 2007.
This paper extends the concept of generating the multi-scale
structure for a finite-size flow system to three-dimensional heatgenerating
plates with maximum heat transfer rate density. The
fluid is forced through a given volume containing the heat
generating plates by an applied pressure difference (ΔP). The
heat-generating plates are arranged in a stack. This work consists
of numerical simulation in a large number of flow
configurations, one differing slightly from the next to determine
the optimum plate spacing and maximum heat transfer rate
density. The heat transfer rate density is further increased by
inserting smaller three-dimensional plates between the bigger
larger plates and optimising the whole structure. The effects of
plate thickness and dimensionless pressure drop number on the
resulting multi-scale structure are reported. The numerical
results are found to be in good agreement with predicted results.
