Effective thermal conductivity of dispersed materials

Measurements have been made by the comparison method for the effective thermal conductivity of dispersed materials which consist of substances with different thermal conductivities. The applicability of existing predicting formulae is discussed in detail as comparing their predicted values with the present data. A new predicting formula is proposed through analyzing the experimental data, the numerical results, and also the data obtained with the electrolytic-bath. It is found that the proposed formula has a wider range of applicability than that of previously reported ones.     

Effective thermal conductivity of granular materials

Calculations are made of the effective thermal conductivity for macroscopic heat transfer in a composite material consisting of a continuous medium (binder) with spherical particles (filler) randomly distributed through it.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 4, pp. 57–66, July–August, 1973.     

Effective thermal conductivity of partially saturated porous rocks

The present work is concerned with the determination of the effective thermal conductivity of porous rocks or rock-like composites composed by multiple solid constituents, in partially saturated conditions. Based on microstructure observations, a two-step homogenization scheme is developed: the first step for the solid constituents only, and the second step for the (already homogenized) solid matrix and pores. Several homogenization schemes (dilute, Mori–Tanaka, the effective field method and Ponte Castañeda–Willis technique) are presented and compared in this context. Such methods are allowing: (i) to incorporate in the modellization the physical parameters (mineralogy, morphology) influencing the effective properties of the considered material, and the saturation degree of the porous phase; (ii) to account for interaction effects between matrix and inhomogeneities; (iii) to consider different spatial distributions of inclusions (spherical, ellipsoïdal). An orientation distribution function (ODF) permits simultaneously to incorporate in the modelling the transverse isotropy of pore systems. Appearing as homogeneous at the macroscopic scale, it is showed that the effective conductivity depends on the physical properties of all subsidiary phases (microscopic inhomogeneities). By considering the solution of a single ellipsoïdal inhomogeneity in the homogenization problem it is possible to observe the significant influence of the geometry, shape and spatial distribution of inhomogeneities on the effective thermal conductivity and its dependence with the saturation degree of liquid phase. The predictive capacities of the two-step homogenization method are evaluated by comparison with experimental results obtained for an argillite.     

Effective thermal conductivity of water-saturated sintered powder-metal plates

An experimental apparatus and related procedures for the determination of the effective thermal conductivity of sintered powder-metal plates saturated with distilled water at temperatures in the range 20–150°C are discussed. The apparatus and procedures are applied to two samples of sintered powder-metal plates, one made of nickel 200 and the other of stainless steel 316, with porosities of 28.10 and 46.45%, respectively, and each of nominal dimensions 127 mm × 127 mm × 6.35 mm. The experimental results are compared with corresponding predictions yielded by several correlations available in the literature. The correlations based on experimental data for packed beds of spherical particles and also porous plates made of cold-pressed (but not sintered) particles of angular shapes do not apply well to sintered powder-metal plates. A new correlation, which is based on extensions of ideas contained in earlier works and provides improved predictions, is proposed.     

Effective thermal conductivity of a medium with ellipsoidal particles

The principal components of the effective thermal conductivity tensor, characterizing stationary heat macrotransfer in a dense medium with dispersed ellipsoidal particles of a different material are calculated by a method suggested in [1]. The case of equally oriented ellipsoids and of isotropically distributed ones are considered as examples.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 1, pp. 107–111, January–February, 1974.The author is grateful to Yu. A. Buevich for his interest.     

Effective thermal conductivity of wire-woven bulk Kagome sandwich panels

Thermal transport in a highly porous metallic wire-woven bulk Kagome (WBK) is numerically and analytically modeled. Based on topology similarity and upon introducing an elongation parameter in thermal tortuosity, an idealized Kagome with non-twisted struts is employed. Special focus is placed upon quantifying the effect of topological anisotropy of WBK upon its effective conductivity. It is demonstrated that the effective conductivity reduces linearly as the porosity increases, and the extent of the reduction is significantly dependent on the orientation of WBK. The governing physical mechanism of anisotropic thermal transport in WBK is found to be the anisotropic thermal tortuosity caused by the intrinsic anisotropic topology of WBK.     

Nongrey radiant heat transfer corrections to thermal conductivity measurements

A numerical investigation is presented to determine the influence of radiative transfer on experimental thermal conductivity measurements. The analysis is simplified by approximating the thermal conductivity test cell configuration by a parallel plate model. The problem is rigorously formulated in terms of a nonlinear integrodifferential equation, and the solution is obtained by the method of successive approximations. Both grey and nongrey results are presented. For water vapor at atmospheric pressure and 700 ?K, it is shown that radiative transfer between black surfaces may affect thermal conductivity measurements by 35 percent.     

Effective thermal conductivity of heterogeneous multi-component materials: an SPH implementation

Modeling heat transfer and fluid flow in materials with complicated micro-structures is a major challenge to numerical methods due to their multiscale and multiphysics nature. A relatively novel numerical technique—the meshless smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method has the potential of making a significant contribution to this research field. In the present SPH modeling effort, a 2D modeling system is devised for the prediction of the effective thermal conductivity in heterogeneous materials containing two or three different components. The microscopic component configuration inside the materials is constructed in the SPH methodology by randomly assigning particles as a certain component to meet the required macroscopic composition. For heterogeneous two-component materials, the effective thermal conductivity predicted by the modified effective medium theory model with the so-called “flexible” factor f equal to 4.5 agrees well with the SPH data. On the basis of a simple “step-process” concept, the effective thermal conductivity of a heterogeneous multi-component material can be derived from the corresponding “degenerate” materials which consist of fewer components.     

Effective thermal conductivity of CdS/ZnS nanoparticles embedded polystyrene nanocomposites

CdS/PS and ZnS/PS nanocomposites have been prepared by solution casting method with different wt% of cadmium sulphide (CdS) and zinc sulphide (ZnS) nanoparticles and characterized through X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope measurements. The effective thermal conductivity of polymer nanocomposites has been measured by transient plane source method over the temperature range from room to 150 °C. The experimental results showed that the thermal conductivity has been found to increase up to 4 wt% of CdS/ZnS nanoparticles and then decrease for 6 and 8 wt% of nanoparticles.     

Viscous dissipation effects on thermal entrance region heat transfer in pipes with uniform wall heat flux

The analytical solution to Graetz problem with uniform wall heat flux is extended by including the viscous dissipation effect in the analysis. The analytical solution obtained reduces to that of Siegel, Sparrow and Hallman neglecting viscous dissipation as a limiting case. The sample developing temperature profiles, wall and bulk temperature distributions and the local Nusselt number variations are presented to illustrate the viscous dissipation effects. It is found that the role of viscous dissipation on thermal entrance region heat transfer is completely different for heating and cooling at wall. In the case of cooling at wall, a critical value of Brinkman number, Br _c=−11/24, exists beyond which (−11/24<Br<0) the fluid bulk temperature will always be less than the uniform entrance temperature indicating the predominance of cooling effect over the viscous heating effect. On the other hand, with Br < Br _c the bulk temperature T _b will approach the wall temperature T _w at some downstream position and from there onward the bulk temperature T _b becomes less than the wall temperature T _w with T _w > B _b > T ₀ indicating overall heating effect for the fluid. The numerical results for the case of cooling at wall Br < 0 are believed to be of some interest in the design of the proposed artctic oil pipeline.     

Effective thermal conductivity of transversely isotropic media with arbitrary oriented ellipsoïdal inhomogeneities

The objective of this work is to investigate the thermal conduction phenomena in transversely isotropic geomaterials or rock-like composites with arbitrary oriented ellipsoïdal inhomogeneities of low aspect ratio. Based on the evaluation of the Green function, we provide here new expressions for the interaction tensor whose knowledge permits to obtain the concentration tensor of the polarization field used itself to evaluate the effective thermal conductivity tensor by homogenization. Some particular cases of the obtained general solution are equally presented, in order to validate the developed formalism. The obtained results are next used to study the effect of matrix anisotropy, pores systems and microstructure-related parameters on the overall effective thermal conductivity in transversely isotropic rocks. A two-step homogenization scheme is developed for the prediction of the initial anisotropy effects and to test the ability of the proposed model in the evaluation of effective thermal conductivity. With the help of an Orientation Distribution Function (ODF) the anisotropy due to the pore systems is also accounted. Numerical applications and comparisons with available experimental data are finally carried out for a partially saturated Opalinus clay and an argillite which are both composed of an argillaceous matrix and multiple solid minerals constituents.     

L- and U-shaped heat pipes thermal modules with twin fans for cooling of electronic system under variable heat source areas

This study utilizes a versatile superposition method with thermal resistance network analysis to design and experiment on a thermal module with embedded six L-shaped or two U-shaped heat pipes and plate fins under different fan speeds and heat source areas. This type of heat pipes-heat sink module successively transfer heat capacity from a heat source to the heat pipes, the heat sink and their surroundings, and are suitable for cooling electronic systems via forced convection mechanism. The thermal resistances contain all major components from the thermal interface through the heat pipes and fins. Thermal performance testing shows that the lowest thermal resistances of the representative L- and U-shaped heat pipes-heat sink thermal modules are respectively 0.25 and 0.17 °C/W under twin fans of 3,000 RPM and 30 × 30 mm² heat sources. The result of this work is a useful thermal management method to facilitate rapid analysis.     

Determination of specific heat and true thermal conductivity of glass from dynamic temperature data

A method to determine the true specific heat and true thermal conductivity for glass and other semitransparent materials from dynamic temperature data is presented. A unique fabrication technique to obtain high quality dynamic temperature data from glass test plates employing thermocouples fused to the glass is described. The true thermal conductivity and specific heat of float glass has been measured using these techniques, and the results are compared with the scant data available in the literature. Sensitivity of the measured specific heat and thermal conductivity to sources of uncertainty is identified and these are discussed.     

Effective thermal conductivity of foam concretes: Homogenization schemes vs experimental data and FEM simulations

This paper focuses on the prediction of thermal conductivity of foam concretes. Various analytical forms for their effective thermal conductivity according to their porosity p (air voids volume) have been first derived based on five well-known Mean-Field Homogenization (MFH) schemes. These predictions were found to be very close for low porosities but move away gradually with increasing porosity. Thus, in order to determine the best homogenization scheme predicting the effective thermal conductivity of foam concretes, MFH predictions were confronted with experimental data obtained on nineteen foam concretes and also with numerical results obtained from 3d Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations conducted on an idealized foam concrete. These comparisons have shown that the normalized effective thermal conductivity of foam concrete is closely framed by the power law (1- p)^3/2 given by the Differential scheme and by the hyperbolic law (1- p)/(1+ p/2) given by the Mori-Tanaka scheme.     

Experimental investigation of plastic finned-tube heat exchangers,with emphasis on material thermal conductivity

In this paper, two modified types of polypropylene (PP) with high thermal conductivity up to 2.3 W/m K and 16.5 W/m K are used to manufacture the finned-tube heat exchangers, which are prospected to be used in liquid desiccant air conditioning, heat recovery, water source heat pump, sea water desalination, etc. A third plastic heat exchanger is also manufactured with ordinary PP for validation and comparison. Experiments are carried out to determine the thermal performance of the plastic heat exchangers. It is found that the plastic finned-tube heat exchanger with thermal conductivity of 16.5 W/m K can achieve overall heat transfer coefficient of 34 W/m² K. The experimental results are compared with calculation and they agree well with each other. Finally, the effect of material thermal conductivity on heat exchanger thermal performance is studied in detail. The results show that there is a threshold value of material thermal conductivity. Below this value improving thermal conductivity can considerably improve the heat exchanger performance while over this value improving thermal conductivity contributes very little to performance enhancement. For the finned-tube heat exchanger designed in this paper, when the plastic thermal conductivity can reach over 15 W/m K, it can achieve more than 95% of the titanium heat exchanger performance and 84% of the aluminum or copper heat exchanger performance with the same dimension.     

Condenser instability in pressure-controlled heat pipes

The vapour-gas interface of pressure-controlled heat pipes loses heat to the condenser. This heat is supplied by condensation of vapour, forming a mist which is supported by flow of vapour from below. Convecting gas transports vapour and mist to cool parts of the condenser where they liquefy and flow back past the interface. The balance of these flows is easily disturbed and regular fluctuations of the interface commonly occur, especially at low operating pressures. This accentuates transport of vapour via the gas, and solid condensate can form and isolate the heat pipe from the gas ballast, especially when the interface is well inside the condenser.

---

Kondensatorinstabilität in druckgesteuerten Wärmerohren

Zusammenfassung Die Dampf-Gas-Grenzfläche von druckgesteuerten Wärmerohren verliert Wärme an den Kondensator. Diese Wärme wird durch Kondensation vom Dampf geliefert unter Bildung eines Tröpfchenschleiers, der vom Dampfstrom von unten her getragen wird. Konvektionsgas überträgt Dampf und Tröpfchen zu den kalten Teilen des Kondensators, wo sie sich verflüssigen und an der Grenzfläche vorbei zurückfließen. Das Gleichgewicht dieser Strömungen kann leicht gestört werden und regelmäßige Schwankungen der Grenzfläche kommen, besonders bei niedrigen Betriebsdrücken, oft vor. Dies verstärkt die Dampfübertragung durch das Gas. Festkondensat kann sich bilden und das Wärmerohr vom Gasballast isolieren, besonders wenn die Grenzfläche weit innerhalb des Kondensators liegt.

     

Temperature control of electrohydrodynamic micro heat pipes

Active thermal control was achieved by using an electrohydrodynamically (EHD) assisted micro heat pipe array. A simulation model of temperature control of EHD micro heat pipes was established in a Matlab Sinulink environment. An experimental model was designed and fabricated to verify the model and identify the factors most influential to the thermal control via EHD micro heat pipe array. Good correspondence between simulations and experiments was achieved. Electric field intensity, set-point temperature and the gap between the upper and lower set-point temperatures were shown to have a dramatic influence on the temperature control.