On the design of two-dimensional cellular metals for combined heat dissipation and structural load capacity (Q5936353)

The authors use two analytical models (corrugated wall and effective medium) to describe the characteristics of heat transfer in two-dimensional structures with forced convection. The corrugated wall approach models the detailed cellular structure. The effective medium model uses volume averaging techniques to describe the behaviour of fluid-saturated porous structures. The authors obtain the overall heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop as functions of relative density, cell shape, cell arrangement, fluid properties and overall dimensions of heat sink. Two dimensionless scaling indices are introduced to help to identify the optimal cell shape and arrangement. The first is based on the ratio of overall heat transfer coeffieient to pumping power, and the other combines thermal performance with shear stiffness. Regular hexagonal cells are found to provide the highest levels of heat dissipation. For panels with thin cores, triangular cells constitute the most compact and yet stiff heat design.