Enhancing Heat Transfer in Porous Metals through Optimisation of Flow Resistance

由于体积功率密度的增加和部署环境的恶劣，热管理已成为电子领域的一个关键问题。由于传统的被动冷却技术是不够的，因此通常需要主动冷却来实现高速率的散热。多孔金属已被证明是高效和成本效益的散热强制流体冷却。阻碍其更广泛应用的一个主要问题是，由于其对流体流动的大阻力，使工作流体移动通过冷却装置所需的高泵送功率。本项目着手解决通过空间保持器方法制造的多孔金属热应用中的科学和技术问题，该多孔金属具有独特的多孔结构和独特的传热行为。该研究的目的是了解流动阻力，传热和孔结构之间的机械关系，并开发技术，以创建定制的多孔金属结构，以显着提高传热性能，最大限度地减少流动阻力。将进行制造、特性表征、建模和工艺开发的组合，以确定支撑多孔金属中热流体行为的基本结构特性，量化其对传热系数和流体流动阻力的影响，并设计和创建异质多孔结构，以实现整体主动冷却性能的阶跃变化。全球热管理产品市场规模超过100亿美元，年增长率为6.8%。英国在这一市场中占有重要份额，是开发电子主动冷却设备新材料和技术的领导者之一。该项目将提供科学的理解和技术发展，支持设计和制造一种有前途的多孔金属，目前正在开发的行业热管理应用。这项研究将确保英国在这一利基领域保持领先地位。该研究还将有利于环境和能源应用的非热多孔产品的研究和开发，例如，吸声器、多孔电极和催化剂载体，其中流动阻力具有确定性影响。

Thermal management has become a critical issue in electronics because of increasing volumetric power densities and the harsh environments in which they are deployed. Active cooling is often required for high rates of heat dissipation because conventional passive cooling techniques are inadequate. Porous metal has been demonstrated to be highly efficient and cost effective in heat dissipation by forced fluid cooling. A main problem impeding its wider application is the high pumping power required to move the working fluid through the cooling device due to its large resistance to fluid flow.This project sets out to address the scientific and technical issues in thermal applications of porous metals manufactured by the space holder methods, which have distinctive porous structure and unique heat transfer behaviour. The aims of the research are to understand the mechanistic relationships between flow resistance, heat transfer and pore structure and to develop technologies to create tailored porous metal structures for significantly enhanced heat transfer performance with minimised flow resistance. A combination of manufacturing, properties characterisation, modelling and process development will be carried out to identify the fundamental structural properties underpinning the thermal fluid behaviour in porous metals, to quantify their effects on heat transfer coefficient and fluid flow resistance, and to design and create heterogeneous porous structures for a step change in overall active cooling performance. The global market for thermal management products is more than $10 billion with an annual growth rate of 6.8%. UK has a significant share in this market and is one of the leaders in developing new materials and technologies for active cooling devices for electronics. This project will provide scientific understanding and technical development underpinning the design and manufacture of a promising class of porous metals that are currently being developed by industry for thermal management applications. This research will ensure that UK maintains the leading position in this niche field. This research will also benefit the research and development of non-thermal porous products for environmental and energy applications, e.g., sound absorbers, porous electrodes and catalyst supports, where flow resistance has a deterministic effect.