Thermal Optimal Design for Heat Sinks or Heat Sink/TEC Assemblies in a Ducted Flow

A series of experimental studies on the heat transfer characteristics from heat sinks or Heat Sink/TEC assemblies in a ducted flow have been performed. Their effects on heat transfer characteristics in ducted flow have been systematically explored. From the results, new performance correlations of the temperature difference (ΔT) and terminal voltage (V) of the TEC modules are proposed. Besides, two new correlations of steady-state average Nusselt number and external thermal resistance in terms of relevant influencing parameters for confined ppf heat sinks in a ducted flow are also proposed, respectively. The statistical sensitivity analysis of ANOVA F-test is employed to estimate the contributions of relevant parameters. Furthermore, a series of RSM models for evaluating heat transfer characteristics including average Nusselt number, average external thermal resistance and T_c−T_a are established. A Sequential Quadratic Programming with multi-starting-point method is successfully employed to automatically and efficiently seek a globally optimal thermal performance. An optimal design of HS/TEC assemblies under both COP ≥ 2 and pumping power limitation larger than 30 W can be achieved with a reduction of 75% on thermal resistance.