Based on constructal theory,a construct of a volume that generates heat at every point and is cooled by the coolant in the constant or tapered channel is optimized by minimizing entransy dissipation rate and flow resistance.The optimal constructs of the rectangular elements with dimensionless mean thermal resistance minimization as well as the first-,secondand thirdorder assemblies with dimensionless global flow resistance minimizations are obtained respectively.The results show that both the mean temperature difference and the limiting temperature difference of rectangular elements based on EDR (entransy dissipation rate) and MTD (maximum temperature difference) minimizations respectively are almost equal.Comparing heat transfer performances from the two optimization procedures,the dimensionless global flow resistance is decreased more for the former procedure when the assembly’s order is high.It may create great superiority for constructal optimization to combine the entransy dissipation extreme principle with heat convection.
XIAO QingHua,CHEN LinGen & SUN FengRui Postgraduate School,Naval University of Engineering,Wuhan 430033,China
The entransy and entransy dissipation extremum principle proposed have opened up a new direction for the heat transfer optimi-zation. The emergence and development of entransy theory are reviewed. Entransy theory and its applications are summarized from several aspects, such as heat conduction, heat convective, heat radiation, heat exchanger design and mass transfer, etc. The emphases are focused on four aspects, i.e., the comparison between entropy generation rate and entransy dissipation rate, the combination of entransy dissipation extreme principle with finite time thermodynamics, the combination of entransy dissipation extreme principle with the heat conduction constructal theory, and the combination of entransy dissipation extreme principle with the heat convective constructal theory. The scientific features of entransy theory are emphasized.
