Abstract
Highly conductive porous media have recently been considered for enhanced cooling applications due to their large internal contact surface area, which promotes convection at the pore level. In this paper, graphite foams that possess high thermal conductivity but low permeability are investigated for convection heat transfer enhancement using air as coolant. Two novel heat sink structures are designed to reduce the fluid pressure drop. Both experimental and numerical approaches are adopted in the study. The experimental data show that the designed structures significantly reduce flow resistance in graphite foams while maintaining relatively good heat removal performance. The numerical results obtained based on the local thermal nonequilibrium model are validated by experimental data and show that the inlet air flow partially penetrates the structured foam walls, while the remaining air flows tortuously through slots in the structure. Flow mixing, which is absent in the block graphite foam, is observed in the freestream area inside the designed structure. It can be concluded that graphite foams with appropriately designed structures can be applied as air-cooled heat sinks in thermal management applications.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 060902 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Journal of Heat Transfer |
| Volume | 133 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 4 Mar 2011 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2011 |
| Externally published | Yes |
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Convective Heat Transfer in Graphite Foam Heat Sinks With Baffle and Stagger Structures. / Leong, K. C.; Li, Hongyu; Jin, L. W.; Chai, J. C.
In: Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol. 133, No. 6, 060902, 06.2011.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Convective Heat Transfer in Graphite Foam Heat Sinks With Baffle and Stagger Structures
AU - Leong, K. C.
AU - Li, Hongyu
AU - Jin, L. W.
AU - Chai, J. C.
PY - 2011/6
Y1 - 2011/6
N2 - Highly conductive porous media have recently been considered for enhanced cooling applications due to their large internal contact surface area, which promotes convection at the pore level. In this paper, graphite foams that possess high thermal conductivity but low permeability are investigated for convection heat transfer enhancement using air as coolant. Two novel heat sink structures are designed to reduce the fluid pressure drop. Both experimental and numerical approaches are adopted in the study. The experimental data show that the designed structures significantly reduce flow resistance in graphite foams while maintaining relatively good heat removal performance. The numerical results obtained based on the local thermal nonequilibrium model are validated by experimental data and show that the inlet air flow partially penetrates the structured foam walls, while the remaining air flows tortuously through slots in the structure. Flow mixing, which is absent in the block graphite foam, is observed in the freestream area inside the designed structure. It can be concluded that graphite foams with appropriately designed structures can be applied as air-cooled heat sinks in thermal management applications.
AB - Highly conductive porous media have recently been considered for enhanced cooling applications due to their large internal contact surface area, which promotes convection at the pore level. In this paper, graphite foams that possess high thermal conductivity but low permeability are investigated for convection heat transfer enhancement using air as coolant. Two novel heat sink structures are designed to reduce the fluid pressure drop. Both experimental and numerical approaches are adopted in the study. The experimental data show that the designed structures significantly reduce flow resistance in graphite foams while maintaining relatively good heat removal performance. The numerical results obtained based on the local thermal nonequilibrium model are validated by experimental data and show that the inlet air flow partially penetrates the structured foam walls, while the remaining air flows tortuously through slots in the structure. Flow mixing, which is absent in the block graphite foam, is observed in the freestream area inside the designed structure. It can be concluded that graphite foams with appropriately designed structures can be applied as air-cooled heat sinks in thermal management applications.
KW - forced convection
KW - graphite foam
KW - Nusselt number
KW - porous medium
KW - pressure drop
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79952512489&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1115/1.4003449
DO - 10.1115/1.4003449
M3 - Article
VL - 133
JO - Journal of Heat Transfer
JF - Journal of Heat Transfer
SN - 0022-1481
IS - 6
M1 - 060902
ER -