Constructal optimization on T-shaped cavity based on entransy dissipation minimization

Abstract

The entransy dissipation extremum principle provides new warranty and criterion for optimization of heat transfer. For a heat transfer model of a rectangular solid wall with an open T-shaped cavity, a dimensionless equivalent thermal resistance based on entransy dissipation is taken as optimization objective, and constructal optimization for the model is carried out when the system volume, the cavity volume and the volume of rectangle occupied by T-shaped cavity are fixed. Numerical results indicate that the optimal geometry construct of cavity can be schemed out based on entransy dissipation extremum principle. The formulation of dimensionless global (maximum) thermal resistance presented in a literature is modified; some new rules which are different from those reported in the literature are obtained based on the minimization of the modified objective. Comparisons of the numerical results show that the optimal system constructs deduced respectively from the two thermal resistance objectives are very different. The optimization by taking equivalent thermal resistance minimization as objective can more effectively reduce mean temperature difference of heat transfer than the optimization by taking maximum thermal resistance minimization as objective, so that the performance of heat transfer for the total system can be improved. The more freedom the cavity has, the better the total system performance is. The correlations of the equivalent thermal resistance and the maximum thermal resistance of the system and three geometric degrees of freedom are found by using function fitting.