Title: Constructal entransy dissipation minimisation for 'volume-point' heat conduction without the premise of optimised last-order construct

Authors: Shuhuan Wei, Lingen Chen, Fengrui Sun

Addresses: Postgraduate School, Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan 430033, PR China. ' Postgraduate School, Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan 430033, PR China. ' Postgraduate School, Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan 430033, PR China

Abstract: In the |volume-point| heat conduction problem with a steady heat source, entransy dissipation reflects the mean temperature difference. By taking entransy dissipation as an optimisation objective, the high effective-conduction channel distribution has been optimised based on rectangular element, without the premise of an optimised last-order construct. A more optimal construct and the limit of the equivalent thermal resistance are obtained. The conclusion shows that, in the hypothesis that the thermal current density in the high conductive link is linear, without a premise optimised last-order construct, the optimised construct with entransy dissipation minimisation objective is the same as the optimised construct with maximum temperature difference minimisation objective, and the mean temperature difference is 2/3 of the maximum temperature difference.

Keywords: constructal theory; entransy dissipation; volume-point heat conduction; generalised thermodynamics; thermodynamic optimisation; thermal resistance; temperature difference; heat transfer.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2010.034933

International Journal of Exergy, 2010 Vol.7 No.5, pp.627 - 639

Published online: 31 Aug 2010 *

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