Three-dimensional geometric optimisation of heat-generating plates cooled by forced convection

Abstract

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.