Galerkin method solution of a volume-averaged model for efficient conjugate heat transfer analysis. (2nd January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sbutega, Krsto; Catton, Ivan
• Is Part Of: Numerical heat transfer. Volume 69:Number 1(2016)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 25
• Publication Date: 2016-01-02
• Subjects: Heat -- Transmission -- Measurement -- Periodicals; Mass transfer -- Measurement -- Periodicals; Numerical analysis -- Periodicals; Heat -- Transmission -- Periodicals; Mass transfer -- Periodicals; 621.4022
• DOI: 10.1080/10407790.2015.1068029
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1040-7790

Abstract

ABSTRACT: A numerical method is developed to efficiently model flow and conjugate heat transfer in heat sinks with arbitrary heat flux inputs. Volume averaging theory (VAT) is applied to the governing conservation equations to obtain a geometrically simplified model of the heat sink. The nonlinear momentum conservation equation is solved using finite difference, while the coupled energy partial differential equations are solved using a Galerkin method with modified Fourier series as basis function. Conduction in the base is significant, and its temperature distribution is obtained analytically. The predicted thermal and hydraulic performance parameters for water-cooled microchannel heat sinks are within 5% of experimental data. Results obtained with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software were shown to provide similar accuracy, but require ~10 3 times more CPU time.