Smita Agrawal

SCA1-like Disease in Mice Expressing Wild-Type Ataxin-1 with a Serine to Aspartic Acid Replacement at Residue 776

Glutamine tract expansion triggers nine neurodegenerative diseases by conferring toxic properties to the mutant protein. In SCA1, phosphorylation of ATXN1 at Ser776 is thought to be key for pathogenesis. Here, we show that replacing Ser776 with a phosphomimicking Asp converted ATXN1 with a wild-type glutamine tract into a pathogenic protein. ATXN1[30Q]-D776-induced disease in Purkinje cells shared most features with disease caused by ATXN1[82Q] having an expanded polyglutamine tract. However, in contrast to disease induced by ATXN1[82Q] that progresses to cell death, ATXN1[30Q]-D776 failed to induce cell death. These results support a model where pathogenesis involves changes in regions of the protein in addition to the polyglutamine tract. Moreover, disease initiation and progression to neuronal dysfunction are distinct from induction of cell death. Ser776 is critical for the pathway to neuronal dysfunction, while an expanded polyglutamine tract is essential for neuronal death.

An Active Heat Sink System With Piezoelectric Translational Agitators and Micro Pin Fin Arrays

Conventional heat sink systems with blowers or fans are approaching maximum thermal management capability due to dramatically increased heat dissipation from the chips of high power electronics. In order to increase thermal performance of air-cooled heat sink systems, more active or passive cooling components are continually being considered. One technique is to agitate of the flow in the heat sinks to replace or aid conventional blowers. In the present study, an active heat sink system that is coupled with a piezoelectric translational agitator and micro pin fin arrays on the heat sink surfaces is considered. The piezoelectric translational agitator generates high frequency and large displacement motion to a blade. It is driven by an oval loop shell that amplifies the small displacement of the piezo stack actuator to the several-millimeter range. The blade, made of carbon fiber composite, is easily extended to a multiple-blade system without adding much mass. The micro pin fin arrays were created with the LIGA photolithography technique. The cooling performance of the heat sink system was demonstrated in single-channel and multiple-channel test facilities. The singlechannel test results show that the active heat sink with the agitator operating at a frequency of 686 Hz and peak-to-peak displacement of 1.4 mm achieved a low thermal resistance of 0.053 C/W in a channel with a 7.9 m/sec flow velocity. Different configurations of the translational agitator with multiple blades were fabricated and tested in a 26-channel, full-size heat sink. Vibrational characteristics are also provided.© 2012 ASME

An Experimental Study on the Effects of Agitation in Generating Flow Unsteadiness and Enhancing Convective Heat Transfer

Agitation is produced inside a channel by a plate that is periodically oscillating normal to the channel side walls. The test channel is a rectangular cavity open on one end to allow inflow and outflow of air, as driven by the plate movement. Heat transfer and velocity measurements are made within different regions of the channel to study the effectiveness of agitation in promoting heat transfer from the channel side wall. The purpose of agitation is to strongly mix the near-wall flow, to thin the thermal boundary layer and increase the convective heat transfer coefficient. Velocity measurements using laser Doppler velocimetry are made to document the fluctuations of velocity within the agitated cavity. Variations of ensemble-averaged velocity throughout the cycle identify the unsteady sloshing of the flow. Cycle-to-cycle variations about the ensemble mean computed as an RMS and resolved in time within the cycle period present the changing turbulence levels throughout the agitation cycle. The ensemble-averaged mean velocity variations show periods of acceleration, deceleration and flow reversal during a cycle as a result of agitator movement. Turbulence is found to increase toward the end of the acceleration phase and persist through the deceleration phase. Intensities of sloshing and turbulence are used to explain the measured convective heat transfer coefficients. ANSYS FLUENT simulations supply velocity contours and flow visualization. This study finds application in electronics cooling where agitation can be used inside air-cooled heat sinks to enhance heat transfer to through-flow driven by a fan.Copyright

A Computational Study of Active Heat Transfer Enhancement of Air-Cooled Heat Sinks by Actuated Plates

Heat transfer performance of air-cooled heat sinks must be improved to meet thermal management requirements of microelectronic devices. The present paper addresses this need by putting actuated plates into channels of a heat sink so that heat transfer is enhanced by the agitation and unsteadiness they generate. A proof-of-concept exercise was computationally conducted in a single channel consisting of one base surface, two fin wall surfaces, and an adiabatic fourth wall, with an actuated plate within the channel. Air flows through the channel, and the actuated plate generates periodic motion in a transverse direction to the air flow and to the fin surface. Turbulence is generated along the tip of the actuated plate due to its periodical motion, resulting in substantial heat transfer enhancement in the channel. Heat transfer is enhanced by 61% by agitating operation for a representative situation. Translational operation of the plate induces 33% more heat transfer than a corresponding flapping operation. Heat transfer on the base surface increases sharply as the gap distance between it and the plate tip decreases, while heat transfer on the fin wall surface is insensitive to the tip gap. Heat transfer in the channel increases linearly with increases of amplitude or frequency. The primary operational parameter to the problem is the product of amplitude and frequency, with amplitude being slightly more influential than frequency. The analysis shows that the proposed method can be used for modern levels of chip heat flux in an air-cooled model forestalling transition to liquid or phase-change cooling.Copyright

Effects of Channel Aspect Ratio on Convective Heat Transfer in an Electronics Cooling Heat Sink Having Agitation and Fan-Induced Throughflow

Fan-driven throughflow is frequently used for convective cooling of electronics. Channels with walls behaving like fins are common. In the present study, the flow inside the channels is agitated by means of translationally oscillating plates called agitators. Effectiveness of agitation by oscillating blades is found to be dependent on the channel width, a parameter studied herein. Heat sinks having narrower channels have a greater number of channels in total for the fixed size of heat sink and therefore greater heat transfer area than heat sinks with wider channels. Thus, with the same channel height, as the aspect ratio increases, channel width decreases, and it is found that opportunities for agitation are reduced and the generated turbulence is more strongly damped, thus reducing heat transfer coefficients. A study was carried out to find direction toward an optimal number of channels for a given heat sink using the agitation strategy. As part of the study, fluid damping and power consumption to drive the agitator assembly were addressed. The study was done numerically using ANSYS FLUENT on a representative single channel of the heat sink and the results were extended to the full size, multiple-channel heat sink system. Recommendations for moving toward an optimum geometry, based on thermal performance and agitator power are made.© 2013 ASME

Fluid damping and power consumption of active devices used in cooling electronics

Active devices, such as synthetic jets and oscillating plate agitators were found to be effective in cooling of high-heat-flux electronics. These devices generate unsteady flows, thinning the thermal boundary layer and enhancing turbulent transport. However, the active devices cause extra power consumption due to flow friction and separation. It is important to understand the factors influencing power consumption in these devices if they are to be applied in cooling system designs. The present study analyzes fluid damping and power consumption in high-frequency (about 1000 Hz) synthetic jets and oscillating plate agitators driven by piezoelectric stacks. This analysis is done numerically, since it is difficult to measure fluid damping. In the simulations, the moving part of the active device is modeled with the moving wall boundary condition. The mesh is updated and the flow is calculated every time the moving part changes its position. The coherent vortex structures generated by theses active devices, like vortices in the synthetic jet cavity or in the oscillating plate tip gap region, are found to cause fluid damping and power consumption. Fluidic power consumption levels with different geometries and different operating frequencies and amplitudes are studied. A correlation is developed to predict fluidic power consumption at different operating conditions.Copyright

Unsteady Heat Flux Measurements in Agitated Channel Flows

In this experiment, agitation is used in a rectangular channel for convective heat transfer enhancement. The channel under study is representative of a flow channel in an electronics cooling finned heat sink module. It is open at one end and has a translationally oscillating plate within it that agitates the flow. Contrary to the heat sink cooling channel, the test channel has no net through-flow so that agitation, isolated from throughflow effects, is studied. The channel is divided into three regions. The entry region is close to the open end of the channel. This would be near the fin tips in the finned heat exchanger channel. The base region is close to the other end of the channel where the flow makes an abrupt U-bend around the agitator plate. This is near the fin base region of a finned channel of a heat sink heat exchanger. The central region is between the two. Each region has special flow and convective heat transfer features for study. Ensemble-averaged velocities and RMS fluctuations of velocity are measured over the cycle. Measured data lend insight into the mixing phenomena in each region over the oscillation cycle. Unsteady heat flux measurements were made in each region and over the cycle to help in understanding the mechanisms affecting heat transfer. The unsteady heat flux characteristics in the entry and base regions seem to be more influenced by the RMS fluctuations of velocity, indicating that heat transfer in these regions is governed by turbulence generated by agitation. The unsteady heat flux trends in the central region seem to be more influenced by acceleration/deceleration of the flow than by turbulence-like structures.Copyright

The Effects of Agitator Blade Geometry and Configuration for Augmenting Heat Transfer by Agitation in Channel Flows

Translationally oscillating blades, called agitators, can be used to thoroughly mix the flow inside heat exchanger channels such as those in an electronics module heat sink. Generally, throughflow is provided with an induction fan. Agitation is implemented inside the channel by using either multiple agitator blades, agitator blades with notched edges, full-length long-blade agitators or short-blade agitators. The power needed to drive the agitator blades is dependent on the agitation velocity, geometry and mass. The performance features of a 50mm long agitator blade operating at an oscillation frequency of 500Hz, a 15mm short agitator blade operating at a frequency of 1000Hz, and two blades of length 15mm operating at a frequency of 500 Hz have been compared. Also, runs with other geometric changes, like those with added notches at the tip of the agitator, are made to explore their benefits. The intent is that the notches generate additional vorticity at the channel inlet, which is convected downstream enhancing heat transfer as it passes. Thus, this study numerically finds directions toward optimal agitator configurations and geometries that would give heat transfer augmentation without excessive power input. It was found that a multiple agitator blade configuration containing two short blade agitators operating at frequency 500Hz gives the best performance in terms of heat transfer augmentation when power consumption is considered. Heat flux plots on the channel wall and turbulence kinetic energy plots within the channel have been used to explain the mechanisms of heat transfer augmentation for the various cases.Copyright