Optimization design method of material stiffness of contact interface considering surface roughness for improving thermal contact performance

The contact interface of precision mechanical equipment, such as electronic equipment, is the crucial medium for transferring internal loads and physical properties and realizing the intended function of the equipment. The thermal contact performance of precision mechanical equipment determines its overall thermal performance. Previous studies have consistently ignored the activeness of differential distribution of contact interface material stiffness in improving thermal contact performance. Therefore, this paper creatively proposed a new idea to improve thermal contact performance by designing the material stiffness of the contact interface. Firstly, based on the precise analysis model of thermal contact performance considering surface roughness, a heuristic-based optimization design method of material stiffness of contact interface was developed, which took the contact interface temperature distribution non-uniformity (CITDN) and thermal contact resistance (TCR) as the optimization objectives. Then, based on this method, the optimization designs of electronic chip packaging and proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) were carried out. The results showed that after optimization, the TCR and CITDN of the electronic chip package were reduced by 83.23% and 92%, respectively, and the TCR and CITDN of PEMFC were decreased by 99.78% and 88.71%, respectively. This method achieved a substantial improvement in thermal contact performance.