Constructal entropy generation rate minimization of line-to-line vascular networks with convective heat transfer

•Constructal optimization of line-to-line vascular networks are carried out.•Optimization objective is overall entropy generation rate per unit load of heat transfer.•Vasculature performance versus mass flow rate and pumping power are obtained.

The constructal optimization of line-to-line vascular networks (proposed by Lorente and Bejan) are carried out by taking the minimization of dimensionless overall entropy generation rate (combining entropy generation rates caused by heat transfer with finite temperature difference and by fluid flow with finite pressure difference) per unit load of heat transfer as the optimization objective, with the constraints of fixed total area occupied by the vasculature and fixed total volume of channels. The correlations of vasculature performance versus dimensionless mass flow rate and dimensionless pumping power are investigated. The analytical correlations and numerical examples of the dimensionless overall entropy generation rate and the dimensionless overall entropy generation rate per unit load of heat transfer versus the number of assembly levels, the dimensionless mass flow rate and the dimensionless pumping power are presented. The results based on the minimization of flow resistance are special cases of this paper. The results show that the comprehensive performance of the vasculature is improved with the increase of the number of assembly levels, but the increase of the number of assembly levels to improve the comprehensive performance of vasculature has a threshold value. The effect of the change of load on comprehensive performance of vasculature with larger number of assembly levels is a little.