Fractal heat transfer device
AssigneeFractal Heatsink Technologies LLC
InventorAlexander Poltorak
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A heat sink comprising a heat exchange device having a plurality of heat exchange elements each having a surface boundary with respect to a heat transfer fluid, having a fractal variation therebetween, wherein the heat transfer fluid is induced to flow with respect to the plurality of fractally varying heat exchange elements such that flow-induced vortices are generated at non-corresponding locations of the plurality of fractally varying heat exchange elements, resulting in a reduced resonance as compared to a corresponding heat exchange device having a plurality of heat exchange elements that produce flow-induced vortices at corresponding locations on the plurality of heat exchange elements.
Claims20
A method of cooling a heat transfer surface, comprising:
- providing a heat sink comprising:
- a plurality of heat exchange elements arranged in a fractal branching pattern over at least three levels of branching,
- each heat exchange element having an external surface of a respective branch configured to transfer heat derived from the heat transfer surface to a surrounding flowable heat exchange medium;
- and
- flowing the flowable heat exchange medium relative to the external surfaces of the plurality of heat exchange elements, such that the flow of the flowable heat exchange medium successively encounters at least two branch points of different branches,
- to thereby transfer heat between the heat transfer surface and the heat sink, and between the heat sink and the flowable heat exchange medium,
- wherein the flowable heat exchange medium has a different temperature than the solid composition;
- and
- wherein the flowable heat transfer medium interacts with the fractal branching pattern to induce a broadband acoustic emission.
A heat exchange method, comprising:
- providing a heat exchanger comprising a branched pattern of heat exchange elements in a multiscale fractal geometric design having at least three levels of branching, defining a plurality of concave regions configured for turbulent interaction with a flowing heat exchange medium;
- and
- actively inducing a flow of the heat exchange medium over at least two successive branches of the at least three levels of branching of the heat exchanger, to cause the turbulent interaction with the plurality of concave regions and associated acoustic emissions, the turbulent interaction causing a broadband acoustic emission having an acoustic spread across an acoustic frequency spectrum having a plurality of peaks selectively defined by a configuration of the multiscale fractal geometric design having the at least three levels of branching.
A heat sink method, comprising:
- defining a plurality of concave regions of a heat exchanger comprising a branched pattern of heat exchange elements in a multiscale fractal geometric design, having at least three successive level of branches, the plurality of concave regions being configured to interact with a flowing heat exchange medium to produce turbulent flow;
- and
- inducing the turbulent flow of the heat exchange medium with a fan to disturb a surface boundary layer on the heat exchange elements and generate broadband acoustic frequency emission having a spread acoustic spectrum selectively dependent on the plurality of concave regions and the multiscale fractal geometric design.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.