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Ref.: Jaluria, Y., Design and Optimization of Thermal Systems, McGraw- Hill Inc.,
1998.
Acceptable Design of a Thermal System
Acceptable design
Engineering Quotes
A common mistake that people make when trying to design
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September 2009 Issue - Volume 11
The major difference between a thing that might go wrong
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Acceptable design
Introduction
The various considerations that are involved in the development of an
acceptable design of a thermal system lead to the following main
steps:
Formulation of the design problem
Conceptual design
Initial design
Modelling of the system
Simulation of the system
Evaluation of the design
Selection of an acceptable design
Acceptable design
Initial Design
The initial design follows the formulation of the problem and the
conceptual design; it is the first step in the quantitative design
procedure. The analysis of the system, through modelling and
simulation, and evaluation of the design for its acceptability are
based on the initial design.
Commonly used methods for obtaining an initial design are:
Selection of components to meet given requirements and
constraints
Use of existing systems
Selection from a library of previous designs
Use of current engineering practice and expert knowledge of
the application
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Acceptable design
Initial Design
Expert knowledge
Expert knowledge is understood as information available on the particular
application and corresponding types of thermal systems, along with current
engineering practice, i.e., the information obtained from an expert in the
area.
Several ideas developed over the years form the basis of this knowledge
and it plays a major role in determining what is feasible and what is not.
Information from earlier problems and attempts to resolve them is also
part of this knowledge.
In the following example is illustrated the use and application of expert
knowledge.
Acceptable design
Initial Design
Expert knowledge (cont.)
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Acceptable design
Initial Design
Expert knowledge (cont.)
Fig. 1.8 (a) Vapor compression refrigeration system
Acceptable design
Initial Design
Expert knowledge (cont.)
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Acceptable design
Initial Design
Expert knowledge (cont.)
Acceptable design
Initial Design
Expert knowledge (cont.)
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Acceptable design
Initial Design
Expert knowledge (cont.)
Acceptable design
Design Strategies
Commonly Used Design Approach
An initial design is developed on the basis of the problem statement and
of the modelling, simulation and evaluation of the corresponding system.
If the given requirements and constraints are satisfied, the initial design is
acceptable. Otherwise, a redesign process is undertaken until an acceptable
design is obtained.
The initial design may be based on existing systems and processes and thus
result in a design which is very close to the final acceptable design. However,
other strategies have been developed and are used for a variety of applications.
Two strategies that are based on numerical simulation are presented in what
follows.
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Acceptable design
Design Strategies
Other Strategies
Adjusting design variables
This approach is based on using the analysis, which incorporates modeling
and simulation to study a range of design variables and determine the
resulting outputs from the system for a typical, fixed set of operating
conditions. The basic concept is kept unchanged, and the design variables,
such as dimensions, specifications and characteristics of components,
geometrical configuration, and materials are varied over their given ranges
and the effects on the important quantities in the problem are investigated.
An acceptable design is obtained by choosing the appropriate values for the
various design variables on the basis of the problem statement and simulation
results.
Acceptable design
Design Strategies
Other Strategies (cont.)
Different designs
Another strategy considers a collection of chosen designs, including
different concepts, and employs modelling and simulation to study
the system behaviour over the expected range of operating
conditions.
An initial design is not the starting point, and simulation results are
obtained for a variety of designs.
An acceptable design is obtained from the various designs
considered by comparing the simulation results with the
problem statement, ensuring that all the requirements and
constraints are satisfied.
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Acceptable design
Design Strategies
Other Strategies (cont.)
Both these strategies are shown schematically in Fig 5.4.
Acceptable design
Design Strategies
Other Strategies (cont.)
The main difference between these strategies and the approach discussed in
Basic Considerations in Design is that an initial design is not the starting
point for the design process. Extensive simulation results are obtained for
the range of design variables for fixed operating conditions in one case and
for a variety of designs under different operating conditions in the other. The
desired acceptable designs are selected on the basis of these results and the
formulation of the design problem. The following example illustrates design
of a system without starting with an initial design.
Example
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Acceptable design
Design Strategies
Example (cont.)
Figure 5.10 Solar collector and storage tank system
Acceptable design
Design Strategies
Example (cont.)
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Acceptable design
Design Strategies
Example (cont.)
Acceptable design
Design Strategies
Example (cont.)
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
The subject of design of thermal systems spans a fairly wide spectrum of problems. A
few examples from some of the important areas of application are given here to illustrate
the synthesis of the various ideas and design steps. Some of these examples are taken
from actual industrial systems.
Manufacturing Processes
Manufacturing processes represent one of the most important areas in which thermal
systems are of interest. These systems are generally complicated, and involve features
such as:
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Manufacturing Processes (cont.)
The governing equations for manufacturing processes are typically partial
differential equations that are coupled through the boundary conditions and
material property variation.
In the following example is discussed the design process for a system used
for industrial thermal processing of materials.
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Manufacturing Processes (cont.)
The governing equations for manufacturing processes are typically partial
differential equations that are coupled through the boundary conditions and
material property variation.
In the following example is discussed the design process for a system used
for industrial thermal processing of materials.
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Manufacturing Processes (cont.)
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Manufacturing Processes (cont.)
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Manufacturing Processes (cont.)
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Manufacturing Processes (cont.)
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Manufacturing Processes (cont.)
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Manufacturing Processes (cont.)
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Manufacturing Processes (cont.)
Let us now consider the thermal system for this process.
A continuous movement of the plastic cords, wound on the mandrel,
in a wide channel with electric heaters and air flow driven by a fan
may be designed, as shown in Fig. 5.17. The mandrels are rotated to
ensure uniform surface heating.
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Manufacturing Processes (cont.)
Fig. 5.18 depicts the condition for which the cords are heated at constant heat flux
in the heating zone and then cooled by convection.
An acceptable design can be obtained from this figure. For a mandrel traversing
speed of 1cm/s, a heating region length of 1.1 m and a cooling region length of 1.4 m
is obtained an acceptable design if the maximum temperature is kept at 300 F
(148.9 C) for safety.
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Cooling of Electronic Equipment
This is an important area for thermal design, electronic devices are generally very
temperature sensitive and it is crucial to design efficient systems to remove the thermal
energy dissipated in electronic equipment.
Figure 5.19 shows the dependence of the difference between the surface temperature of the
electronic device and the ambient as a function of the input heat flux.
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Cooling of Electronic Equipment (cont.)
Various modes of heat transfer for removal of the dissipated energy are also indicated, with
natural cooling in air applicable at very low heat flux levels and liquid cooling with boiling at
very high levels.
The main characteristics of the electronic systems and associated cooling methods
are:
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Cooling of Electronic Equipment (cont.)
In the design of thermal systems for the cooling of electronic equipment the typical
fixed quantities, requirements, constraints, and design variables are as follows:
The design process is generally first directed at the cooling parameters, keeping the
geometry of the electronic circuitry unchanged.
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Cooling of Electronic Equipment (cont.)
A relatively simple design problem is considered in the following example to
illustrate some of the basic considerations involved.
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Cooling of Electronic Equipment (cont.)
Example
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Cooling of Electronic Equipment (cont.)
Solution:
By employing a given value of the convective heat transfer coefficient,
the problem is considerably simplified, since the calculation of the fluid
flow in the enclosure is not required.
It should be noted this is a simplification, because, in general, the
conjugate (conduction + convection) problem in the boards requires the
solution of coupled nonlinear partial differential equations.
In the present case, a simple mathematical model is derived to determine
the temperature distribution in the board.
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Cooling of Electronic Equipment (cont.)
Solution (cont.):
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Cooling of Electronic Equipment (cont.)
Solution (cont.):
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Cooling of Electronic Equipment (cont.)
Solution (cont.):
The mathematical model yields a second-order ordinary differential equation which may
be solved numerically.
The results were obtained with a Newton-Raphsomcorrection scheme applied to the
fourth order Runge-Kutta method.
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Cooling of Electronic Equipment (cont.)
Solution (cont.):
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Cooling of Electronic Equipment (cont.)
Solution (cont.):
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Cooling of Electronic Equipment (cont.)
Solution (cont.):
The effect of varying the width of the board for five components is shown in Fig. 5.23;
if the width can be increased to 0.30 m, five components can be accommodated
without violating the temperature limit. Similarly, an increase in the thickness and
height of the board leads to reduction in temperature levels, allowing additional
components to be located per board.
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Environmental Systems
Thermal systems related to environmental problems have gained considerable interest
because of the need to design efficient systems for the disposal of rejected energy, chemical
pollutants, and solid waste.
Examples of the flows generated by such discharges are shown in the Figure
below.
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Environmental Systems (cont)
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Environmental Systems (cont)
Let us consider thermal or mass discharges to ponds and lakes. The design
problem may be formulated as
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Environmental Systems (cont)
The heat transfer from a cooling pond such as a lake involves
Transport mechanisms are relatively involved and simplifications are
usually used to estimate the resulting heat and mass transfer; however,
all the transport rates may be combined into a single expression such as:
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Environmental Systems (cont)
Environmental Systems (cont)
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Environmental Systems (cont)
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Environmental Systems (cont)
Solution
The given quantities are the pond dimensions, the total amount of
heat rejected Q, the temperature difference T between the intake
and outfall, and the surface heat transfer parameters h and T
e
that
characterize the local ambient conditions.
The requirement is that the temperature rise at the intake must not
exceed 2.5C.
The main constraint is that the energy rejected to the pond must be
rejected to the environment for steady-state conditions.
Assumptions
The pond is shallow as the depth H is much less than the length L
and width W, and uniform conditions over the depth are assumed.
The heat transfer from the pond occurs only at the surface and the
total thermal energy rejected to the pond must be lost to the
environment at the surface for steady-state conditions,
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Environmental Systems (cont)
Let us first consider a very simple one-dimensional model with
uniformity assumed over the pond width as well, as shown in the
Figure .
FIGURE. Three-dimensional problem of heat rejection to a body of water,
along with a simplified one-dimensional model.
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Environmental Systems (cont)
where u is the average discharge velocity in the x direction and T(x) is the
temperature distribution in the pond. The governing equation for T(x) is
The total heat rejected Q is given as
where
h
is the eddy thermal diffusivity. The boundary conditions are
where T
o
is the temperature at the outfall, x = 0, and T
L
is the temperature
at the intake, x = L. It is assumed that there is no heat loss beyond x = L,
giving the zero gradient condition.
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Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Environmental Systems (cont)
To calculate the temperature distribution over the pond surface the differential
equation needs to be solved. A possible approach to solve it is by using the finite
difference method.
The Figure shows the computed results for different values of the total energy
rejected to the pond.
FIGURE Temperature distribution from the one-dimensional slug flow model for different
values of energy rejected Q.
Acceptable design
Design of Systems from Different Application Areas
Environmental Systems (cont)
Observations
The temperature rise at the intake is less than the allowable value of
2.5C for Q = 400 kW. Therefore, this is an acceptable design.
The temperature rise at the intake is within the given limit even for
Q = 600 kW.
For still higher values of Q, the given requirements cannot be met
and an additional heat rejection system, such as a cooling tower, will be
needed.
For small values of Q, the intake temperature is unchanged.
As Q increases, the flow rate and thus u increases, resulting in an
increase in the temperature level needed to lose the increased amount
of energy by surface heat transfer. This gives rise to a larger intake
temperature.
An increase in the eddy diffusivity
h
, which represents the
turbulence due to wind and the flow in the pond, also increases the
intake temperature due to enhanced thermal diffusion.