ISTP33

Enhancing Passive Cooling by Rigid and Flexible Non-conductive Baffles

Professor Chengwang Lei

Centre for Wind, Waves and Water,
School of Civil Engineering,
The University of Sydney, Australia.

Passive cooling of electronics is common in domestic and industry systems such as computers, mobile devices, and mobile base stations etc. It is critical to remove the waste heat generated by electronics as quickly as possible to avoid overheating and consequent system failure. In passive cooling systems, waste heat is dissipated through natural convection, and the efficiency of passive cooling is generally low. Therefore, it is highly desirable to enhance heat transfer by natural convection. The heat transfer rate of natural convection is controlled by a thermal boundary layer forming on the heat transfer surface and depends on the state of the thermal boundary layer, which may be manipulated using either active or passive techniques. This presentation will focus on passive techniques. An overview of our experimental and numerical studies of thermal boundary layer and heat transfer enhancement will be provided. The presentation will cover three major topics: (1) The role of perturbations on the resonance behaviour and transition of thermal boundary layer and their implications for heat transfer enhancement; (2) The effect of one or more rigid non-conductive baffles on heat transfer; and (3) Heat transfer enhancement using a flexible non-conductive baffle.

About Professor Chengwang Lei

Dr. Chengwang Lei is a Professor in the School of Civil Engineering at The University of Sydney, Australia and the Deputy Director of Centre for Wind, Waves and Water. Before joining The University of Sydney, Prof. Lei was an academic at James Cook University following the completion of his PhD from The University of Western Australia in 1999.
His main research interests are in fundamental fluid mechanics related to hydrodynamics of bluff bodies and buoyancy driven flows and involve experimental, numerical, and analytical approaches.
Prof. Lei is an Associate Editor of Journal of Enhanced Heat Transfer and currently serves as an Editorial Board member of Energy and Buildings, Heat Transfer, and Discover Mechanical Engineering etc. He is a Founding Fellow and an Executive Board member of the Asian Union of Thermal Science and Engineering (AUTSE) and an Executive Committee member of the Australasian Fluid and Thermal Engineering Society (AFTES).