Electronic devices today consist of several heat generating components which are densely packaged together. This is especially true in the case of telecommunications equipment, where the high data throughput required to service the network and the miniaturization of equipment with advancing technology has resulted in a dense array of a variety of heat generating components with high heat fluxes, including optical and electronic components, being packaged together in a small volume. Efficient thermal management of these components is crucial as on the one hand, there are strict temperature limits for reliability and on the other, the volume occupied by the thermal management solution has to be minimal to allow for multiple deployment scenarios.
Work at the Efficient Energy Transfer Department at Nokia Bell Labs is focused on meeting such thermal management challenges. As part of a recent project, the use of highly reliable low-profile piezoelectric fans was proven to be an effective step between natural convection and forced convection cooling. Simulations and experiments were performed to understand the air flow in the region surrounding these fans. Subsequently, configurations and regimes of operations were implemented to ensure performance beyond commercially available products. Another recent project focused on the pumping requirements for microfluidic cooling within a photonics system for telecommunications equipment. A novel multiphase pump was developed from concept to prototype. Simulations were performed to optimize the performance of the pump and physical components were simplified to ensure easy manufacturability.

Speaker Profile :
Dr Akshat Agarwal is Member of Technical Staff at the Efficient Energy Transfer Department at Nokia Bell Labs in Dublin, Ireland. Akshat received a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London in 2015 for research in Computational Fluid Dynamics. Prior to this, Akshat graduated from the National University of Singapore in 2010 with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering and a specialization in Aeronautical Engineering. At Nokia Bell Labs, Akshat’s research focuses on simulations of fluid dynamics and heat transfer systems to ensure optimal performance and easy manufacturability.
Akshat graduated from the National University of Singapore with a First Class Honours Degree and was placed on the President’s Honor Roll. Akshat received the Outstanding International Student scholarship as well as a Doctoral Training Scholarship for the duration of his doctoral studies at Imperial College London. Akshat has performed experiments as well as simulations across topics such as transition to turbulence in non-Newtonian flow, fluid-structure interaction, multiphase flow and has authored several publications, conference papers and patent applications on these topics.