Paper presented at the 7th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Turkey, 19-21 July, 2010.
Solid state conductive heat transfer is of importance for the cooling of electronic equipment. At smaller length scales internal cooling via conductive heat transfer has advantages above internal convective heat transfer, especially because it does not rely on support system such as pumps. However, in order for conductive cooling to become effective, the use of high conducting materials and the correct distribution thereof is essential,
especially when the volume which needs to be cooled has a low thermal conductivity. In this two-dimensional numerical study the optimum distribution of high conductive material within a square-shaped uniform heat generating medium is investigated by using a topology optimization algorithm. The use of such a method is considered for two different cost (driving) functions and the resulting cooling material distribution or conducting trees are compared.
