Constructal design of a comb-like channel network for self-healing and self-cooling
Abstract
The present work shows how to minimize the global pressure drop in a comb-like channel network with self-healing and self-cooling functionalities implementing the concept of constructal design. A thick channel distributes the fluid flow to many thin channels that are perpendicular to the thick channel. The flow regime throughout the network is assumed to be fully developed laminar flow with negligible local losses. We systematically investigated the degrees of freedom of the fluid channel network, and determined the optimal internal and external aspect ratios of the flow architecture such that the total pressure drop is minimum. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.