Three-dimensional fluid-thermal–mechanical coupling numerical modeling of elastocaloric cooler for electronic chip

Abstract

The rapid progress in electronic component integration poses formidable challenges to electronic circuit thermal design. The elastocaloric cooling system is a promising solution to address the escalating need for efficient small-scale cooling and temperature control. This study aims to develop an electronic chip cooler based on the elastocaloric effect of shape memory alloys. To more accurately capture the spatial temperature distribution and the intricate fluid flow mixing process of the cooling system, we developed a novel three-dimensional elastocaloric cooling numerical model, also addressing the limitations of existing numerical models in accuracy and applicability. Three cases were designed and evaluated, varying in flow rate, cycle frequency, and strain rate. We propose a criterion for determining the optimal cycle frequency under fixed flow and strain rate: during system stabilization, the frequency that minimizes the disparity between the cooling start line and the cooling end line. The results reveal that the optimal cycle frequency is 1/2.6 Hz at a flow rate of 0.5 L/min and a strain rate of 0.45 s−1. Compared to conventional approaches, our custom-designed elastocaloric cooler results in an additional reduction of 16 K in the chip's maximum temperature. This system achieves a specific cooling power of 6.69 W/g and a coefficient of performance of 1.55.