Oscillation mini-channel cookware
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current cookware technologies face challenges in achieving high thermal conductivity while being lightweight, cost-effective, and safe, particularly for indirect heating regions, as existing multi-ply constructions are heavy and expensive, and heat pipe cookware is complex and unreliable.
Innovation Solution
The use of an oscillation mini-channel embedded in a metal plate with a direct and indirect heating region, filled with an operating fluid under vacuum, which creates vapor bubbles and liquid slugs for convection-based heat transfer, achieving high thermal conductivity without a wick structure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If multi-ply construction is used to achieve high thermal conductivity, then thermal conductivity is improved, but weight and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the cookware into multiple functional layers: an outer shell, an inner shell, and a heat transfer medium contained in channels between the shells. This segmentation allows each layer to perform its specific function optimally while maintaining overall lightweight construction, resolving the contradiction between thermal conductivity and weight.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a heat transfer medium (water or other fluid) as an intermediary substance that circulates through channels between the outer and inner shells. This intermediary enables efficient heat transfer from the heating source to the cooking surface without requiring heavy multi-ply metal construction, thus improving thermal conductivity while reducing weight.
2Temperature
If heat pipe cookware with wick structure is used to achieve high thermal conductivity, then thermal conductivity is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the complex wick structure from the heat pipe design. Instead of using capillary wicks to transport the heat transfer medium, the invention employs open channels or cavities where gravity and pressure differentials naturally drive fluid circulation. This extraction of the wick component significantly reduces device complexity while maintaining high thermal conductivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The heat transfer medium in the patent circulates through the system using natural convection currents and gravity-driven flow, without requiring external pumps or complex control mechanisms. The system serves itself by utilizing the inherent physical properties of the fluid and the temperature gradients to maintain continuous heat transfer, thereby reducing device complexity.
3Temperature
If heat pipe cookware with wick structure is used to achieve high thermal conductivity, then thermal conductivity is improved, but reliability and safety decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a heat transfer medium that can be easily replaced or refilled if needed, such as water in open channels. This approach uses simple, inexpensive components that can be maintained or replaced without complex procedures, thereby improving reliability and safety compared to sealed heat pipe systems with fragile wick structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent designs the heat transfer system with excess heat transfer medium and open channel architecture that can accommodate variations in fluid volume without catastrophic failure. This beforehand cushioning approach ensures that even if some fluid is lost or the system experiences thermal shocks, the cookware maintains reliable heat transfer performance without sudden failure.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution results in cookware with effective thermal conductivity exceeding 1,000 W/m.K, providing fast and uniform heating, and is safer and more cost-effective than existing technologies, with the ability to use various heat sources and orientations.
Implementation Method 1
By using the phenomenon where the working fluid in the hermetically sealed space is evaporated and condensed to undergo a phase change at a uniform temperature
Implementation Method 2
the working fluid in the hermetically sealed space is evaporated and condensed to undergo a phase change
Implementation Method 3
the working fluid in the hermetically sealed space is evaporated and condensed to undergo a phase change
Implementation Method 4
The oscillation mini-channel is dimensioned to produce capillary forces that hold the liquid slugs in the mini-channel
Implementation Method 5
Heat transfer is due primarily to convection rather than phase change
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2a~2c
Figure 3a~3c
AI summary
Cookware such as griddles and pots are formed with an oscillation mini-channel that winds back-and-forth between direct and indirect heating regions. An operating fluid that occupies 30-90 percent of the volume of the oscillation mini-channel is placed under vacuum. The mini-channel is dimensioned to produce capillary forces that create vapor bubbles and liquid slugs interspersed throughout the oscillation mini-channel. Heating of the direct heating region creates oscillatory movements of the vapor bubbles and liquid slugs that transfers heat from the direct heating region to the indirect heating region to maintain a more uniform temperature across the food-heating zone. The cookware may exhibit an effective thermal conductivity of at least 1,000 W/m.K.