ISTP-33

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 dissipate 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 by 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 determined 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 strategies. This presentation will focus on passive strategies. An overview of our experimental and numerical studies of thermal boundary layer and heat transfer enhancement will be presented. The presentation will cover three topics: (1) The resonance behaviour and transition of thermal boundary layer and their implications for heat transfer performance; (2) The effect of one or more rigid non-conductive baffles on natural convection heat transfer; and (3) Heat transfer enhancement using a flow induced self-oscillating flexible baffle.

About Professor Chengwang Lei

Professor 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. Prof Lei received his Bachelor (1988) and Master (1992) degrees from Huazhong University of Science & Technology in China and PhD degree (2000) from The University of Western Australia. Before joining The University of Sydney in 2009, Prof Lei held several academic positions at James Cook University. His main research interests are in fundamental fluid mechanics related to hydrodynamics of bluff bodies and buoyancy driven flows, which adopt experimental, numerical, and analytical approaches. Prof Lei is an Associate Editor of Journal of Enhanced Heat Transfer (Begell House) and currently serves as an Editorial Board member for Energy and Buildings (Elsevier), Heat Transfer (Wiley), and Discover Mechanical Engineering (Springer). 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).