Constructal entransy dissipation rate minimization for heat conduction based on a tapered element

Abstract

Based on constructal theory, the structure of a tapered element and high-conductivity link is optimized by taking the minimization of the entransy dissipation rate as the optimization objective. The results show that the mean temperature difference of the heat transfer cannot always decrease when the internal complexity of the control-volume increases. There exists an optimal constructal order leading to the minimum mean temperature difference for heat transfer. The thermal current density in high-conductivity links with variable shapes does not linearly depend on the length. Therefore, the optimized constructs based on the minimization of the entransy dissipation rate are different from those based on the minimization of the maximum temperature difference. Compared with the construct based on the minimization of the maximum temperature difference, the construct based on the minimization of the entransy dissipation rate can reduce the mean temperature difference, and improve the heat transfer performance significantly. Because entransy describes the heat transfer ability more suitably, various constructal problems in heat conduction may be addressed more effectively using this basis. © The Author(s) 2011.