ABSTRACT

In the current era of immense technological advancement, most of the systems are automated and controlled by electronic components, such as chips and circuit boards, which facilitate better sensing and control in engineering applications varying from data centers to gasturbine engines. In addition, with the fast-paced development track of electronics, the power consumption per unit area has relatively gone up. To complement better operation and longevity of such components, there is a vital need of thermal management methods, having active liquid cooling as its key contributor. The assessment of cooling methods is catered by using computational and experimental methods, where the fundamental parameters are pumping power and thermal resistance. The current study reports on a computational investigation using 3-D CFD simulations aimed at testing nine different hybrid cold plate designs. Constructal theory-based flow channel geometries were used to improve on the hydrodynamic performance in terms of low pressure drop and uniform flow distribution in a fractal branches manifold. High-power dissipation was targeted at a rate of 150 W, emulating a state-of-the-art computer chip. A conventional two-cavity micro jet cold plate was presented as the benchmark for comparison with our hybrid constructal-based micro jet cold plates. The hybrid cold plate configurations used a combination of microchannels and micro jets, have a lower pressure drop than the benchmark configuration by a minimum of 40%. Furthermore, a minimum reduction of 7.5% was noted in the thermal resistance. Seven, out of nine variants have shown promising cooling performance. The implementation of highly efficient flow distribution channels, in combination with the effective cooling mechanism of jet impingement, allowed us to develop a promising alternative for thermal management of high-power electronics for a wide range of applications.