Finned heat sinks with phase change materials and metal foams: Pareto optimization to address cost and operation time

Finned heat sinks equipped with phase change materials to store and release large amounts of thermal energy and metal foams to increase overall thermal conductivity are a promising solution for heat transfer surfaces thermal management. These devices need to be properly designed in order to achieve an optimal trade-off between fundamental objectives like cost minimization and operation time maximization. Nowadays there are no studies available that figure out how to combine design variables to reach these goals. In the present study, a mathematical model based on volume-averaged porous media equations is employed to predict surface operation time. After comparisons with literature data, multi-objective Pareto optimization of such devices is performed with a genetic algorithm because of the large explored domain of solutions referred to heat sink geometry and foam morphology. The results show that the derived Pareto front covers operation time and device cost between about 2000-6000 s and 200-275 euro per device, respectively, while the optimum according to the utopia criterion features an operation time of 4000 s with a cost of about 225 euro per device. Data presented here can be a very useful tool to design such devices for heat transfer management in an optimized form.

Automated summary

The study optimized the design of a heat sink using a mathematical model and genetic algorithm to achieve a balance between maximizing operation time and minimizing cost. The optimal solution features an operation time of 4000 s with a cost of about 225 euro per device.