Purpose

This study aims to investigate a new circuitous minichannel cold plate (MCP) design involving flow fragmentation. The overall thermal performance and the temperature uniformity analysis are performed and compared with the traditional serpentine design. The substrate thickness and its thermal conductivity are varied to analyse the effect of axial-back conduction due to the conjugate nature of heat transfer.

Design/methodology/approach

The traditional serpentine minichannel is modified into five new fragmented designs with two inlets and two outlets. A three-dimensional numerical model involving the effect of conjugate heat transfer with a single-phase laminar fluid flow subjected to constant heat flux is solved using a finite volume-based computational fluid dynamics solver.

Findings

The minimum and maximum temperature differences are observed for the two branch fragmented flow designs. The two-branch and middle channel fragmented design shows better temperature uniformity over other designs while the three-branch fragmented designs exhibited better hydrodynamic performance.

Practical implications

MCPs could be used as an indirect liquid cooling method for battery thermal management of pouch and prismatic cells. Coupling the modified cold plates with a battery module and investigating the effect of different battery parameters and environmental effects in a transient state are the prospects for further research.

Originality/value

The study involves several aspects of evaluation for a conclusive decision on optimum channel design by analysing the performance plot between the temperature uniformity index, average base temperature and overall thermal performance. The new fragmented channels are designed in a way to facilitate the fluid towards the outlet in the minimum possible path thereby reducing the pressure drop, also maximizing the heat transfer and temperature uniformity from the substrate due to two inlets and a reversed-flow pattern. Simplified minichannel designs are proposed in this study for practical deployment and ease of manufacturability.

中文翻译：

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具有迂回微通道的改进冷板设计的研究：涉及共轭传热效应的计算研究

目的

本研究旨在研究一种涉及流动破碎的新型迂回微通道冷板（MCP）设计。进行整体热性能和温度均匀性分析，并与传统蛇形设计进行比较。改变基底厚度及其热导率，以分析由于传热的共轭性质而产生的轴向背传导的影响。

设计/方法论/途径

传统的蛇形微通道被修改为五个新的分段设计，两个入口和两个出口。使用基于有限体积的计算流体动力学求解器求解三维数值模型，该模型涉及恒定热通量下单相层流流体的共轭传热效应。

发现

对于两个支路分段流设计观察到最小和最大温差。两分支和中间通道分段设计比其他设计表现出更好的温度均匀性，而三分支分段设计表现出更好的流体动力学性能。

实际影响

MCP 可用作软包和方形电池热管理的间接液体冷却方法。将改进的冷板与电池模块耦合并研究瞬态下不同电池参数的影响和环境影响是进一步研究的前景。

原创性/价值

该研究涉及通过分析温度均匀性指数、平均基础温度和整体热性能之间的性能图来评估最佳通道设计的决定性决策的几个方面。新的分段通道的设计方式有助于流体以尽可能最小的路径流向出口，从而降低压降，同时由于两个入口和逆流模式，还可以最大限度地提高基板的传热和温度均匀性。本研究提出了简化的微通道设计，以实现实际部署和易于制造。