Conjugate Heat Transfer Analysis and Heat Dissipation Design of Nucleic Acid Detector Instrument

Abstract

Temperature affects both the stability of nucleic acid detectors and efficiency of DNA amplification. In this study, temperature and flow inside a nucleic acid detector were simulated and the results were used to design vents for the instrument casing. A test platform was constructed to collect experimental temperature data that were used for simulation validation. The experimental and simulation results showed that the temperature error was less than ±3 K. A total of two heat-dissipation schemes were designed based on the simulation and a new instrument casing was fabricated based on the scheme with the best results. Nucleic acid amplification was performed continuously for 120 min using a prototype with the new casing. The temperatures of the monitoring points were stable and the maximum temperature measured only 307.76 K (34.61 °C). Therefore, waste heat was effectively eliminated, which ensured safety of the electronic components and stability of the nucleic acid detection process.