Open Access

ARTICLE

A Simulation Study on Heat Transfer of a Three-Layer Contact Structure under Ultrahigh Heat Flux Considering Thermal Contact Resistance

Xingjie Ren^1,2,#,*, Jianrong Zhang^3,4,#, Qingfeng Tang³, Heng Zhang³, Yaling Zhang^3,4,*

1 Institute for Advanced Technology, Shandong University, Jinan, 250061, China
2 Shandong Key Laboratory of Thermal Science and Smart Energy Systems, Jinan, 250061, China
3 Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou, 516003, China
4 Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

* Corresponding Authors: Xingjie Ren. Email: ; Yaling Zhang. Email:
# These authors contributed equally to this work

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Microscale Heat and Mass Transfer and Efficient Energy Conversion)

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer 2025, 23(3), 881-897. https://doi.org/10.32604/fhmt.2025.066302

Received 04 April 2025; Accepted 27 May 2025; Issue published 30 June 2025

Abstract

This paper investigates interfacial heat transfer characteristics in a multi-layer structure under ultra-high heat flux conditions, focusing on thermal contact resistance (TCR) between adjacent layers. A three-layer computational model with dual rough interfaces was developed to systematically analyze the synergistic effects of interfacial pressure, surface emissivity, and thermal interface materials (TIMs). Surface reconstruction using experimental measurement data generated two representative roughness models to quantify the impact of surface roughness on heat dissipation. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the absence of TIMs leads to insufficient thermal dissipation capacity under ultra-high heat flux conditions. Compared to TIM application, merely increasing the convective heat transfer coefficient shows limited effectiveness in enhancing heat dissipation efficiency.

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Keywords

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