Abstract
In the paper, liquid-cooled heat sink (cold plate) used for power electronic cooling is numerically studied. Thermal and hydraulic performances are analyzed, with the emphasis on geometrical construction of cooling channels. Two heat transfer enhancing channel shapes are investigated, such as alternating elliptical channel (AE-C) and alternating rectangular channel (AR-C). Their performances are compared with that of three traditional straight channel shapes, as straight circular channel (SC-C), straight elliptical channel (SE-C), and straight rectangular channel (SR-C). Coolant pressure drop and heat sink surface temperature are calculated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach, with water as coolant. It is found that, when channel hydraulic diameter and coolant volumetric flow rate are fixed, the heat sinks with alternating rectangular channel have the highest thermal performance with a little penalty on pressure drop. Geometry optimization is studied for AR-C. The effects of channel density are investigated, and it is found that higher channel density can improve both thermal and hydraulic performances. A case study is conducted for a heat sink with uniform and discrete heat sources. It is concluded that alternating channels provide excellent thermal performance and should be taken into application for cold plate.
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