Thermal Design Optimization Research Articles

Optimal thermal design of microchannel heat sinks with different geometric configurations

In this study, three-dimensional models of microchannel heat sinks (MCHSs) with different geometric configurations (such as single-layered- (SL), double-layered- (DL) or tapered-(T)-channels) are constructed by an optimization procedure. This procedure integrates a direct problem solver with a simplified conjugate-gradient method as the optimizer. The overall thermal resistance of an MCHS is the objective function to be minimized with respect to geometric parameters, such as the number of channels, channel width ratio, channel aspect ratio and tapered ratios, as the search variables. The optimal thermal resistance is found to decrease in the following order: the initial guess parallel channel (IGP channel), SL-, DL- and T-channel designs. In addition, the T-channel design has the minimum temperature difference and the most uniform temperature distribution, followed by the DL-, SL- and IGP-channel designs. Moreover, the optimal thermal resistance reduces with the pumping power for the various channel configuration designs, and the lowest thermal resistance corresponds to the T-channel design. The larger the pumping power, the larger the decrement in thermal resistance. Therefore, the optimal T-channel is the best MCHS design when considering thermal resistance and temperature distribution uniformity.

Towards thermal design optimization of tubular digesters in cold climates: A heat transfer model

A cold climate, low cost, tubular digester is monitored and temperatures from different parts of the slurry, greenhouse, and adobe walls are presented, discussing the thermal performance of the digester. The slurry exhibits a vertical gradient of 6°C, with a mean value of 24.5°C, while the ambient temperature varies from 10°C to 30°C, showing the efficiency of the system as a solar heat collector with thermal inertia. A simple time-dependent thermal model is developed using inputs of solar radiation, wind velocity, ambient temperature, and digester geometry. The model outputs include temperatures of the slurry, the biogas, its holding membrane and the greenhouse air, wall and cover. Radiative, convective and conductive heat transfer phenomena are considered between all system elements. The model has 0.47°C (2%) standard error for the average slurry temperature. This model can be used to predict the influence of geometry and materials on the performance of the digester.

Degradation of thermal control materials under a simulated radiative space environment

A spacecraft with a passive thermal control system utilizes various thermal control materials to maintain temperatures within safe operating limits. Materials used for spacecraft applications are exposed to harsh space environments such as ultraviolet (UV) and particle (electron, proton) irradiation and atomic oxygen (AO), undergo physical damage and thermal degradation, which must be considered for spacecraft thermal design optimization and cost effectiveness. This paper describes the effect of synergistic radiation on some of the important thermal control materials to verify the assumptions of beginning-of-life (BOL) and end-of-life (EOL) properties. Studies on the degradation in the optical properties (solar absorptance and infrared emittance) of some important thermal control materials exposed to simulated radiative geostationary space environment are discussed. The current studies are purely related to the influence of radiation on the degradation of the materials; other environmental aspects (e.g., thermal cycling) are not discussed. The thermal control materials investigated herein include different kind of second-surface mirrors, white anodizing, white paints, black paints, multilayer insulation materials, varnish coated aluminized polyimide, germanium coated polyimide, polyether ether ketone (PEEK) and poly tetra fluoro ethylene (PTFE). For this purpose, a test in the constant vacuum was performed reproducing a three year radiative space environment exposure, including ultraviolet and charged particle effects on North/South panels of a geostationary three-axis stabilized spacecraft. Reflectance spectra were measured in situ in the solar range (250–2500nm) and the corresponding solar absorptance values were calculated. The test methodology and the degradations of the materials are discussed. The most important degradations among the low solar absorptance materials were found in the white paints whereas the rigid optical solar reflectors remained quite stable. Among the high solar absorptance elements, as such the change in the solar absorptance was very low, in particular the germanium coated polyimide was found highly stable.

Steady State Heat Deposits Modeling in the ${\hbox {Nb}}_{3}{\hbox {Sn}}$ Quadrupole Magnets for the Upgrade of the LHC Inner Triplet

In hadron colliders such as the LHC, the energy deposited in the superconductors by the particles lost from the beams or coming from the collision debris may provoke quenches detrimental to the accelerator operation. In previous papers, a Network Model has been used to study the thermodynamic behavior of magnet coils and to calculate the quench levels in the LHC magnets for expected beam loss profiles. This model was subsequently used for thermal analysis and design optimization of quadrupole magnets, which LARP (US LHC Accelerator Research Program) is developing for possible use in the LHC luminosity upgrade. For these new magnets, the heat transport efficiency from the coil to the helium bath needs to be determined and optimized. In this paper the study of helium cooling channels and the heat evacuation scheme are presented and discussed.

Bidimensional fluorescence analysis and thermal design of europium thenoyltrifluoroacetonate based thermal-to-visible converter

We perform a bidimensional analysis to evaluate the variation of the fluorescence decay of europium thenoyltrifluoroacetonate (EuTTA) with temperature changes. We analyze how a specific thermal distribution modifies the spatial temperature of the sensing film and we study the corresponding fluorescence response using an integral functional of the emission decay. We present experimental results of a thermal distribution registered with the EuTTA-based thermal-to-visible conversion method. Furthermore, we analyze the spatial and temporal response of the proposed sensing element by using heat-transfer theory. Based on the presented analysis, we establish the optimal thermal and physical design for the sensing element of the proposed thermal-to-visible converter.

Heat and Mass Transfer in Solid State Hydrogen Storage: A Review

Metal hydrides are formed when certain metals or alloys are exposed to hydrogen at favorable temperatures and pressures. In order to sustain the sorption of hydrogen during this exothermic process, the generated heat has to be removed effectively. Release of hydrogen is an endothermic process needing supply of heat to the metal hydride matrix. Depending on the application, the heat transfer medium can be either a liquid or a gas. Reduction of the total weight of hydrogen storage devices is essential toward utilization of hydrogen for mobile and portable applications. While a variety of new storage materials with desirable sorption characteristics are being suggested, optimal thermal design of the storage device remains a major challenge. Lack of thermodynamic, transport, and thermophysical property data of the material particles and of the bed is another drawback which needs to be addressed.

Note: Thermal conductivity measurement of individual poly(ether ketone)/carbon nanotube fibers using a steady-state dc thermal bridge method

Customized engineered fibers are currently being used extensively in the aerospace and automobile industries due to the ability to "design in" specific engineering characteristics. Understanding the thermal conductivity of these new fibers is critical for thermal management and design optimization. In the current investigation, a steady-state dc thermal bridge method (DCTBM) is developed to measure the thermal conductivity of individual poly(ether ketone) (PEK)/carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers. For non-conductive fibers, a thin platinum layer was deposited on the test articles to serve as the heater and temperature sensor. The effect of the platinum layer on the thermal conductivity is presented and discussed. DCTBM is first validated using gold and platinum wires (25 μm in diameter) over a temperature ranging from room temperature to 400 K with ±11% uncertainty, and then applied to PEK/CNT fibers with diverse CNT loadings. At a 28 wt. % CNT loading, the thermal conductivity of fibers at 390 K is over 27 Wm(-1)K(-1), which is comparable to some engineering alloys.

A Design Criteria of Ventilation Holes to Reduce a Vapor Condensation on the Balcony Walls in Apartment Housings

LH has installed sashes to the balcony to save energy and increase residential space. Then, it is very difficult to protect a condensation of vapor on the walls in the winter time, because the space is closed and the wall surface temperature becomes very low in a balcony. We have tried to get the optimal thermal design methods to reduce the condensation on the walls. The one of the chosen method is to make holes on the walls, and then the condensation shall be reduce because the dew point temperature will be lower due to the effect of dehumidify. In this case, it is just necessary to find as like that how many holes should be perforated through the wall, what's their size, and where is their positions. In this study, a computational fluid dynamics was applied to analyze the temperature, the pressure and the velocity distribution for an incompressible flow in the balcony spaces. And field tests were also carried out to get the data to compare to the simulation results. Finally the design criteria of the ventilation holes in the balconies was suggested by analysis of the computer simulation models.

CFD Analysis for Optimum Thermal Design of Carbon Nanotube Based Micro-Channel Heatsink

Carbon nanotube (CNT) is considered as an ideal material for thermal management in electronic packaging because of its extraordinary high thermal conductivity. Fabricated onto a silicon substrate to form micro-channels, the CNT based cooling fins show high heat dissipation efficiency. A series of 2D and 3D CFD simulations have been carried out for CNT based micro-channel cooling architectures based on one and two dimensional fin array in this paper using COMSOL 4.0a software. Micro-channels are generally regarded as an effective method for the heat transfer in electronic products. The influence of various fluids, micro-fin structures, fluid velocity and heating powers on cooling effects have been simulated and compared in this study. Steady-state thermal stress analyses for the forced convection heat transfer are also performed to determine maximum allowable stress and deflections for the different types of cooling assembly.

Thermal hydraulic performance analysis of a double tube bundle steam generator for a liquid metal reactor

In this study, thermal-hydraulic performance of a double tube bundle steam generator (DTBSG) using helically coiled tubes was analyzed numerically. For this purpose a one-dimensional thermal-hydraulic analysis computer program was developed. The DTBSG contains hot fluid and cold fluid tube bundles, a medium fluid and a pump for a medium fluid circulation in an SG. Heat is transferred from the hot side to the cold side through a medium fluid which fills the SG shell side. The fluids of the hot, cold and medium side are sodium, water/steam, lead–bismuth respectively. The assessment was made for four different types of the DTBSG at 200 MWt. It showed there is an optimum medium flow rate for each type and the separated bundle type have the best heat transfer efficiency (heat transfer rate per unit area) among the various DTBSG. However, it requires quite a large pumping power and the velocity of the medium fluid. The effect of a medium flow rate change is relatively small in the integrated bundle types while it is very large in the separated type. The developed program can be used for the optimum thermal design of a double tube bundle steam generator, which is one of the candidates for an Intermediate Heat Transport System (IHTS) simplification concept.

Study on Thermal Placement Optimization of Embedded MCM

In the thermal design of embedded multi-chip module (MCM), the placement of chips has a significant effect on temperature field distributing, thus influences the reliability of the embedded MCM. The thermal placement optimization of chips in embedded MCM was studied in this paper, the goal of this work is to decrease temperature and achieve uniform thermal field distribution within embedded MCM. By using ANSYS the finite element analysis model of embedded MCM was developed, the temperature field distributing was calculated. Based on genetic algorithms, chips placement optimization algorithm of embedded MCM was proposed and the optimization chips placement of embedded MCM was achieved by corresponding optimization program. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the obtained optimization chips placement, finite element analysis (FEA) was carried out to assess the thermal field distribution of the optimization chips placement in embedded MCM by using ANSYS. The result shows that without chips placement optimizing the maximum temperature and temperature difference in embedded MCM model are 87.963°C and 2.189°C respectively, by using chips placement optimization algorithm the maximum temperature drop than the original 0.583°C and the temperature difference is only 0.694°C . It turns out that the chip placement optimization approach proposed in this work can be effective in providing thermal optimal design of chip placement in embedded MCM.

Thermal–electrical co-optimisation of floorplanning of three-dimensional integrated circuits under manufacturing and physical design constraints

Although the stacking of multiple strata to produce three-dimensional (3D) integrated circuits (ICs) improves interconnect length and hence reduces power and latency, it also results in the exacerbation of the thermal management challenge owing to the increased power density. There is a need for design tools to understand and optimise the trade-off between electrical and thermal design at the device and block levels. This study presents results from thermal–electrical co-optimisation for block-level floorplanning in a multi-die 3D IC under various manufacturing and physical design constraints. A method for temperature computation based on linearity of the governing energy equation is presented. This method is combined with previously reported electrical delay models for 3D ICs to simultaneously optimise both the maximum temperature and the interconnect length. It is shown that co-optimisation of thermal and electrical objectives results in a floorplan that is attractive from both perspectives. Physical design constraints because of cost-effective 3D manufacturing such as using fully or partly identical dies using reciprocal design symmetry (RDS), differentiated technology in each die and thinned die/wafer are discussed and their impact on the thermal–electrical co-optimisation is investigated. In some cases, the cheapest manufacturing choice, such as using identical die, for each layer may not result in optimal thermal and electrical design. Results presented in this work highlight the need for thermal and electrical co-design in multi-strata microelectronics, and for reconciling manufacturing and design considerations in order to develop practical design tools for 3D ICs.

Optimum thermal design of microchannel heat sink with triangular reentrant cavities

Abstract The effect of geometric parameters on water flow and heat transfer characteristics in microchannel heat sink with triangular reentrant cavities is numerically investigated. A three-dimensional laminar flow model, consisting of Navier–Stokes equations and energy conservation equation, with the conjugate heat transfer between the silicon base and water taken into consideration is solved numerically. In order to find the optimum geometric parameters, four variables, representing the distance and geometry of the triangular reentrant cavity, are designed. It is found that the vortices in the triangular reentrant cavities lead to chaotic advection and can greatly enhance the convective fluid mixing. The thermal and hydraulic boundary layers are interrupted and the repeated developing flow enhances heat transfer in the constant cross-section segment. Furthermore, the effects of the four design variables on heat transfer augmentation and pressure drop penalty are investigated depending on different Reynolds numbers by using the simulated annealing method. Based on the thermal enhancement factor performance maps, the optimal geometric parameters are obtained in principle.

Thermal placement optimization of multichip modules using a sequential metamodeling-based optimization approach

The study attempts to seek the optimal thermal design of planar multichip module (MCMs) under natural convection through optimal chip placement design. To attain the goal, a sequential metamodeling-based optimization approach is introduced. This approach incorporates a response surface methodology (RSM)-based design of experiment (DOE), three-dimensional (3D) thermal finite element analysis (FEA) and an updating scheme. Essentially, the RSM is used to construct, via quadratic polynomial approximation, the global RS of the chip junction temperature in terms of design variables. For speeding up the DOE and the solution of the optimization, several dynamic experimental design strategies using move limits and different proposed sampling techniques are introduced. The feasibility of the strategies is demonstrated, and their solution accuracy and efficiency are also compared with each other. By the explicit RS-based performance function together with geometry constraints, a constrained thermal optimization subproblem is formed. The optimum of the subspace optimization is sought, which is considered as the nominal starting point of next iteration. The iterative process continues with a new defined design subspace and factorial design plan until convergence is attained. The applicability of the proposed design optimization technique is demonstrated through several design case studies involving various planar MCMs.

Multi-Objective Optimization of Heat Exchanger Design by Entropy Generation Minimization

In the present work, a multi-objective optimization of heat exchanger thermal design in the framework of the entropy generation minimization is presented. The objectives are to minimize the dimensionless entropy generation rates related to the heat conduction under finite temperature difference and fluid friction under finite pressure drop. Constraints are specified by the admissible pressure drop and design standards. The genetic algorithm is employed to search the Pareto optimal set of the multi-objective optimization problem. It is found that the solutions in the Pareto optimal set are trade-off between the pumping power and heat exchanger effectiveness. In some sense, the optimal solution in the Pareto optimal set achieves the largest exchanger effectiveness by consuming the least pumping power under the design requirements and standards. In comparison with the single-objective optimization design, the multi-objective optimization design leads to the significant decrease in the pumping power for achieving the same heat exchanger effectiveness and presents more flexibility in the design process.

An analytical method for the optimum thermal design of convective longitudinal fin arrays

The paper analyzes the problem of the optimum thermal design of free and forced convection fin arrays composed of longitudinal fins with constant thickness. Two different optimization problems have been considered: the minimization of the weight for a given heat flow and the maximization of the heat flow for a given weight. Two different geometrical configurations of the fin array have been considered: closed array and open array. The procedure for the optimization is provided in a general case and a complete analytical solution of the problem, for the case with the tip approximated as being insulated, is developed. The paper contains several illustrative examples of the application of the proposed optimization procedure.

Response Surface Based Optimization Approach for Thermal Placement Design of Chips in Multiple-Chip Modules

This paper attempts to perform thermal enhancement of planar multiple-chip modules (MCMs) containing a number of chips of equal and/or unequal power through optimal chip placement design. To achieve the goal, an effective design approach is presented for the thermal design optimization problems in the context of models of placement of chips in MCMs. The approach combines the use of the currently proposed response surface (RS) based methodology, which is an optimization algorithm and a finite element modeling technique. The proposed RS-based methodology is used for creating a macro mathematical expression of the design objective of the thermal optimization problem, i.e., the total chip junction temperature of the system, associated with the design parameters, including the chip location and power. The validity of the mathematical expressions constructed is verified through two approaches. Furthermore, to make the constructed mathematical expression more compact while maintaining the associated solution accuracy, the backward variable elimination technique is employed. The effectiveness of the proposed design optimization methodology is demonstrated through several design case studies involving planar plastic ball grid array type MCMs. It is found that the proposed RS-based methodology could accurately define the macro mathematical model of the total system chip junction temperature in terms of the chip location and power. In addition, results show that the current optimal chip placement design can provide a minimal system temperature.

Envelope Thermal Design Optimization of Buildings with Intermittent Occupancy

Buildings with intermittent occupancy may not perform thermally the same as typical commercial and residential facilities. Thermal comfort requirements require careful envelope design coupled with the appropriate air-conditioning system operation strategies. One of the most prominent examples of such buildings is mosques. Mosques are usually occupied five intermittent times day and night all year round. Like any other building, they have to be mechanically air-conditioned to achieve the required thermal comfort for worshippers especially in harsh climatic regions. This paper describes the physical and operating characteristics typical for the intermittently occupied mosques as well as the results of the thermal optimization of a medium size mosque in the two hot-dry and hot-humid Saudi Arabian cities of Riyadh and Jeddah. The analysis utilizes a direct search optimization technique that is coupled to an hourly energy simulation program. Based on that, design guidelines are presented for the optimum thermal performance of mosques in these two cities in addition to other design and operating factors that need to be considered for mosques in general.

Multi-objective thermal design optimization and comparative analysis of electronics cooling technologies

A multi-objective thermal design optimization and comparative study of electronics cooling technologies is presented. The cooling technologies considered are: continuous parallel micro-channel heat sinks, in-line and staggered circular pin-fin heat sinks, offset strip fin heat sinks, and single and multiple submerged impinging jet(s). Using water and HFE-7000 as coolants, Matlab’s multi-objective genetic algorithm functions were utilized to determine the optimal thermal design of each technology based on the total thermal resistance and pumping power consumption under constant pressure drop and heat source base area of 100mm2. Plots of the Pareto front indicate a trade-off between the total thermal resistance and pumping power consumption. In general, the offset strip fin heat sink outperforms the other cooling technologies.

Thermal simulation and design optimization of a thermopile infrared detector with an SU-8 membrane

Simulation and optimization tools are commonly used in the design phase of advanced electronics devices. In this work, we present a thermal simulation and design optimization tool for infrared thermopile detectors based on a closed membrane structure. The tool can be used to simulate and optimize thermopile detectors with an arbitrary number of design parameters. The optimization utilizes the Nelder–Mead and the adaptive simulated annealing optimization algorithms to maximize the system performance. A thermopile detector with an SU-8-based closed membrane and metal–metal thermocouples has been simulated and optimized. Based on the results generated by the tool, an optimized detector has been fabricated and characterized. The results from the measurements presented are in good agreement with the simulation results.