Thermohydraulic analysis and optimization of serpentine channel cold plates

High-density energy systems, electronic circuits, and battery packs require thermal management systems to operate within desired temperature ranges. Cold plates are one of the most critical components of these systems. In this study, the thermal and hydraulic performance behavior of a liquid cold plate cooled under specific operating conditions was investigated experimentally and numerically. In the experimental analysis, the cooling process of a serpentine channel cold plate was carried out using the liquid cooling method under water inlet temperatures of 10 °C, 15 °C, and 20 °C, volumetric flow rates of 0.1 L/min, 0.5 L/min, and 0.9 L/min, and thermal power operating conditions of 75 W, 100 W, and 125 W. Under these operating conditions, the cooling performance of the cold plate was analyzed by measuring the plate surface temperature distributions, coolant temperature variations, and pressure drops. In the numerical analysis method, a numerical model of the system was created using computational fluid dynamics, and a validation study was performed with the obtained experimental data. Subsequently, the performance of the cold plate was evaluated using; The effects of volumetric flow rate (V̇), coolant inlet temperature (T_g), channel inlet diameter (D_i), fluid type, channel expansion ratio (θ), and plate material were investigated. As a result, 0.9 L/min water volumetric flow rate, 10 °C cooling fluid inlet temperature, 100/0 water/ethylene-glycol mixture ratio, 4.5 mm channel inlet diameter, 4.5 mm channel expansion ratio, and copper material type, the minimum values of the average and maximum temperatures developing on the cooling plate surface were calculated. In addition, a multi-objective optimization of the cold plate was performed. As a result of the optimization performed with the independent parameters V̇, T_g, D_i and θ, the optimum performance values were calculated as 0.5 L/min, 11.16 °C, 4.47 mm, and 1.49 mm, respectively. Keywords: Cold plate, thermal management systems, liquid cooling method, computational fluid dynamics, optimization