Spacecraft thermal design is an inverse problem that requires one to determine the choice of surface properties that yield a desired temperature distribution within a satellite. The current techniques for spacecraft thermal design are very much in the frame of trial and error. The goal of this work is to move away from that procedure, and have the thermal design solely dependent on heat transfer parameters. It will be shown that the only relevant parameters to attain this are ones which pertain to radiation. In particular, these parameters are absorptivity and emissivity. We intend to utilize an optimal/analytical approach, and obtain a solution via optimization. As mentioned in the motivation, having a purely passive thermal system will greatly reduce costs, and our optimization solution will enable that. This topic involves heat transfer (conduction and radiation), spacecraft thermal network models, numerical optimization, and materials selection.

The Veo+ projector is using a cooling system that consists of fan and blowers. This system is cooling the electronic components of the device and the lamp of the projector, however extracting a high noise. To lower this noise the rpm speeds (rotational speed) of the fan and blowers should be decreased. Thus, lowering the speed will result in higher temperature values in whole system (inside the device). While lowering the speed, the higher temperature values should be kept within the thermal design specifications of the electronic components. The purpose of this thesis work is to find an optimal solution with lower rpm speeds of the fan and blowers while keeping the temperatures of the various components of the device (touch temperature of the enclosure and electronic components) within the temperature design limits. Before testing the device to find the optimum state, the design limits of the device are determined. Then, by using the design of experiment methods like Taguchi, the optimum state for the device within the design specifications is obtained. Finally, additional tests are applied within the optimum state to demonstrate a fan algorithm as a final solution. While doing the experiments thermocouples are used for measuring the component temperatures.

Spacecraft thermal design is an inverse problem that requires one to determine the choice of surface properties that yield a desired temperature distribution within a satellite. The current techniques for spacecraft thermal design are very much in the frame of trial and error. The goal of this work is to move away from that procedure, and have the thermal design solely dependent on heat transfer parameters. It will be shown that the only relevant parameters to attain this are ones which pertain to radiation. In particular, these parameters are absorptivity and emissivity. We intend to utilize an optimal/analytical approach, and obtain a solution via optimization. As mentioned in the motivation, having a purely passive thermal system will greatly reduce costs, and our optimization solution will enable that. This topic involves heat transfer (conduction and radiation), spacecraft thermal network models, numerical optimization, and materials selection.

Microfluidic technology has been grown rapidly in the past decade. Microfluidics can find wide applications in multiple fields such as medicine, electronics, chemical and biology. Micro-pumping is an essential part of a microfluidic system. This thesis presents the optimization process of AC electro-thermal micropump with respect to the geometry of electrode array and channel height. The thesis first introduces the theories of AC electrokinetic including dielectrophoresis, AC electro-osmosis (ACEO) and AC electro-thermal (ACET). Also presented are the basic theory and governing equations of microfluidics, the continuity equation, the Navier-Stokes equation, and the conservation of energy equation. AC electro-thermal effect results from the interplays between electric field, temperature field and fluid mechanics. Since the governing equations are highly non-linear, numerical simulation is extensively used to understand the effects of factors such as the electrode dimensions and channel height. By interfacing finite element analysis software COMSOL Multiphysics with Matlab, to the simulation model is able to scan the geometry variables so as to find the optimal micropump design. The optimization has been performed with respect to flow rate and power efficiency of the micropump.

Microfluidic technology has been grown rapidly in the past decade. Microfluidics can find wide applications in multiple fields such as medicine, electronics, chemical and biology. Micro-pumping is an essential part of a microfluidic system. This thesis presents the optimization process of AC electro-thermal micropump with respect to the geometry of electrode array and channel height.The thesis first introduces the theories of AC electrokinetic including dielectrophoresis, AC electro-osmosis (ACEO) and AC electro-thermal (ACET). Also presented are the basic theory and governing equations of microfluidics, the continuity equation, the Navier-Stokes equation, and the conservation of energy equation. AC electro-thermal effect results from the interplays between electric field, temperature field and fluid mechanics. Since the governing equations are highly non-linear, numerical simulation is extensively used to understand the effects of factors such as the electrode dimensions and channel height. By interfacing finite element analysis software COMSOL Multiphysics with Matlab, to the simulation model is able to scan the geometry variables so as to find the optimal micropump design. The optimization has been performed with respect to flow rate and power efficiency of the micropump.

A proprietary Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) modeling tool, the Makai OTEC Thermodynamic and Economic Model (MOTEM), is leveraged to evaluate the accuracy of finite-time thermodynamic OTEC optimization methods. MOTEM is a full OTEC system simulator capable of evaluating the effects of variation in heat exchanger operating temperatures and seawater flow rates. The evaluation is based on a comparison of the net power output of an OTEC plant with a fixed configuration. Select optimization methods from the literature are shown to produce between 93% and 99% of the maximum possible amount of power, depending on the selection of heat exchanger performance curves. OTEC optimization is found to be dependent on the performance characteristics of the evaporator and condenser used in the plant. Optimization algorithms in the literature do not take heat exchanger performance variation into account, which causes a discrepancy between their predictions and those calculated with MOTEM. A new characteristic metric of OTEC optimization, the ratio of evaporator and condenser overall heat transfer coefficients, is found. The heat transfer ratio is constant for all plant configurations in which the seawater flow rate is optimized for any particular evaporator and condenser operating temperatures. The existence of this ratio implies that a solution for the ideal heat exchanger operating temperatures could be computed based on the ratio of heat exchanger performance curves, and additional research is recommended.

La présente étude concerne l’étude d’optimisation thermique d’une machine électrique. Un modèle nodal est utilisé pour la simulation du champ de température. Ce modèle résout l’équation de la chaleur en trois dimensions, en coordonnées cylindriques et en régime transitoire ou permanent. On prend en compte les deux mécanismes de transport les plus importants : La conduction et la convection. L’évaluation de ce modèle est effectuée par l’intermédiaire de 13 valeurs de débits de référence. C’est en faisant varier ces variables qu’on évalue la performance du refroidissement dans la machine. Avant de partir sur l’étude d’optimisation de cettegéométrie, on a lancé une étude d’optimisation d’un cas plus simple afin de mieux comprendre les différents outils d’optimisation disponibles. L’expérience acquise avec les cas simples est utilisée dans l’optimisation thermique de la machine. La machine est thermiquement évaluée sur la combinaison de deux critères : la température maximale et la température moyenne. Des contraintes ont été additionnées afin d’obtenir des résultats physiquement acceptables. Le problème est résolu à l’aide des méthodes de gradient (Active-set et Point-Intérieur) et des Algorithmes Génétiques. / This work relates the thermal optimization of an electrical machine. The lumped method is used to simulate the temperature field. This model solves the heat equation in three dimensions, in cylindrical coordinates and in transient or steady state. We consider two transport mechanisms: conduction and convection. The evaluation of this model is performed by means of 13 design variables that correspond to the main flow rates of the equipment. We analyse the machine cooling performance by varying these 13 flow rates. Before starting the study of such a complicated geometry, we picked a simpler case in order to better understand the variety of the available optimization tools. The experience obtained in the simpler case is applyed in the resolution of the thermal optimization problem of the electrical machine. This machine is evaluated from the thermal point of view by combining two criteria : the maximum and the mean temperature. Constraints are used to keep the problem consistent. We solved the problem using the gradient based methods (Active-set and Interior-Point) and the Genetic Algorithms.

This master‘s thesis deals with problems of optimization of cooling in electrical machines. This work includes introduction to the theory of mathematical optimization and brief introduction to optimization problems. This thesis deals with using of program Ansys Workbench for the thermal analysis in electrical machines and optimization of their cooling. Thesis contains thermal analyse of specific asynchronous motor with the squirrel cage and optimization of its cooling.