Entropy generation and optimization of laminar convective heat transfer and fluid flow in a microchannel with staggered arrays of pin fin structure with tip clearance

Entropy generation rate accounting for heat transfer and flow friction is presented for the flow in microchannel with staggered pin fin arrays, clearance existing between the pin fin tip and the shroud plate. Within the scope of the present work, entropy generation rate due to heat transfer is levels of magnitude higher than that from flow friction, which is nonetheless not negligible considering its scaling effect on the pumping power consumption, for all cases under investigation. For the pin fin structure with high aspect ratio (height-to-diameter), the effect of tip clearance was found more pronounced with a conductive nature competing with the convective. When this ratio is low, the convective effect dominates the variation of entropy generation by heat transfer and flow friction, the effect of the clearance gap favored by higher aspect ratio. The entropy minimization method is applied to seek for an optimal combination of all impact factors under investigation. The Pareto frontier along with its corresponding solution sets are obtained by Multiobjective Optimization Genetic Algorithm. The solution sets acquired for the scenario with high-aspect-ratio pin fin fall within the region of lower pin fin density where the trade off between the convective and the conductive effects is identified. On the other hand, dominated by the convective nature, the solution sets for cases with lower aspect ratio are in principle located at the upper bounds. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.