TY - JOUR
T1 - New Configurations of Micro Plate-Fin Heat Sink to Reduce Coolant Pumping Power
AU - Kolaei, Alireza Rezania
AU - Rosendahl, Lasse
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - The thermal resistance of heat exchangers has a strong influence on the electric power produced by a thermoelectric generator (TEG). In this work, a real TEG device is applied to three configurations of micro plate-fin heat sink. The distance between certain microchannels is varied to find the optimum heat sink configuration. The particular focus of this study is to reduce the coolant mass flow rate by considering the thermal resistances of the heat sinks and, thereby, to reduce the coolant pumping power in the system. The threedimensional governing equations for the fluid flow and the heat transfer are solved using the finite-volume method for a wide range of pressure drop laminar flows along the heat sink. The temperature and the mass flow rate distribution in the heat sink are discussed. The results, which are in good agreement with previous computational studies, show that using suggested heat sink configurations reduces the coolant pumping power in the system.
AB - The thermal resistance of heat exchangers has a strong influence on the electric power produced by a thermoelectric generator (TEG). In this work, a real TEG device is applied to three configurations of micro plate-fin heat sink. The distance between certain microchannels is varied to find the optimum heat sink configuration. The particular focus of this study is to reduce the coolant mass flow rate by considering the thermal resistances of the heat sinks and, thereby, to reduce the coolant pumping power in the system. The threedimensional governing equations for the fluid flow and the heat transfer are solved using the finite-volume method for a wide range of pressure drop laminar flows along the heat sink. The temperature and the mass flow rate distribution in the heat sink are discussed. The results, which are in good agreement with previous computational studies, show that using suggested heat sink configurations reduces the coolant pumping power in the system.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84862228108&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11664-011-1887-3
DO - 10.1007/s11664-011-1887-3
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0361-5235
VL - 41
SP - 1298
EP - 1304
JO - Journal of Electronic Materials
JF - Journal of Electronic Materials
IS - 6
ER -