Enhancing performance of photovoltaic panel by cold plate design with guided channels

The present work is generally related to the design of a manifold microchannel heat sink with high modularity and performance for electronics cooling, utilizing two well established (i.e., jet impingement and channel flow) cooling technologies. The present cold plate design provides flexibility to assemble manifold sections in five different configurations to reach different flow structures, and thus different cooling performance, without redesign. The details of the modular manifold and possible configurations of a cold plate comprising three manifold sections are shown herein. A conjugate flow and heat transfer 3-D model is developed for each configuration of the cold plate to demonstrate the merits of each modular design. Parallel flow configurations are used to satisfy a uniform cooling requirement from each module, but a “U-shape” parallel flow “base” configuration cools the modules more uniformly than a “Z-shape” flow pattern due to intrinsic pressure distribution characteristics. A serial fluid flow configuration requires the minimum coolant flow rate with a gradually increasing device temperature along the flow direction. Two mixed (i.e., parallel + serial flow) configurations achieve either cooling performance similar to the “U-shape” configuration with slightly more than half of the coolant flow rate, or cooling of a specific module to a much lower temperature level. Generally speaking, the current cold plate design significantly extends its application to different situations with different cooling requirements.

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Cold Plate Design for Airborne Electronic Equipment

IRE Transactions on Aeronautical and Navigational Electronics ◽

10.1109/tane3.1958.4201576 ◽

1958 ◽

Vol ANE-5 (1) ◽

pp. 30-35

Author(s):

M. Mark

Keyword(s):

Electronic Equipment ◽

Cold Plate ◽

Plate Design

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Design and Test of Cryogenic Cold Plate for Thermal-Vacuum Testing of Space Components

Energies ◽

10.3390/en12152991 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (15) ◽

pp. 2991

Author(s):

Díez-Jiménez ◽

Alcover-Sánchez ◽

Pereira ◽

García ◽

Vián

Keyword(s):

Thermal Conduction ◽

Low Cost ◽

Thermal Inertia ◽

Experimental Tests ◽

Cold Plate ◽

Axial Loads ◽

Plate Design ◽

High Thermal Inertia ◽

Vibration Tests ◽

Novel Design

This paper proposes a novel cryogenic fluid cold plate designed for the testing of cryogenic space components. The cold plate is able to achieve cryogenic temperature operation down to −196 °C with a low liquid nitrogen (LN2) consumption. A good tradeoff between high rigidity and low thermal conduction is achieved thanks to a hexapod configuration, which is formed by six hinge–axle–hole articulations in which each linking rod bears only axial loads. Thus, there is not any stress concentration, which reduces the diameter of rod sections and reduces the rods’ thermal conduction. This novel design has a unique set of the following properties: Simple construction, low thermal conduction, high thermal inertia, lack of vibrational noise when cooling, isostatic structural behavior, high natural frequency response, adjustable position, vacuum-suitability, reliability, and non-magnetic. Additionally, the presented cold plate design is low-cost and can be easily replicated. Experimental tests showed that a temperature of at least −190 °C can be reached on the top surface of the cold plate with an LN2 consumption of 10 liters and a minimum vibration frequency of 115 Hz, which is high enough for most vibration tests of space components.

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Cold-plate design analysis for electronic equipment

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets ◽

10.2514/3.27787 ◽

1973 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 680-682 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

EUGENE D. VEILLEUX

Keyword(s):

Design Analysis ◽

Electronic Equipment ◽

Cold Plate ◽

Plate Design

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Modular Design for a Single-Phase Manifold Mini/Microchannel Cold Plate

Journal of Thermal Science and Engineering Applications ◽

10.1115/1.4031932 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Feng Zhou ◽

Yan Liu ◽

Yanghe Liu ◽

Shailesh N. Joshi ◽

Ercan M. Dede

Keyword(s):

Flow Rate ◽

Heat Sink ◽

Modular Design ◽

Parallel Flow ◽

Coolant Flow ◽

Coolant Flow Rate ◽

Cold Plate ◽

Cooling Performance ◽

Plate Design ◽

Flow Configurations

The present work is related to the design of a manifold mini/microchannel heat sink with high modularity and performance for electronics cooling, utilizing two well established (i.e., jet impingement and channel flow) cooling technologies. A manifold system with cylindrical connection tubes and tapered inserts is designed for uniform coolant distribution among different channels and easy manufacturing of the whole cooling device. The design of the insert provides freedom to manipulate the flow structure within each manifold section and balance the cooling performance and required pumping power for the cold plate. Due to the optimized tapered shape of the insert inlet branches, fluid flows more uniformly through the entire heat sink fin region leading to uniform heat sink base temperatures. Extending the design of the heat sink fin structure from the mini to microscale, and doubling of the number of insert inlet/outlet branches, results in an 80% increase in the cooling performance, from 30 kW/(m2 · K) to 54 kW/(m2 · K), with only a 0.94 kPa added pressure drop penalty. The present cold plate design also provides flexibility to assemble manifold sections in different configurations to reach different flow structures, and thus different cooling performance, without redesign. The details of the modular manifold and possible configurations of a cold plate comprising three manifold sections are shown herein. A conjugate flow and heat transfer three-dimensional (3D) numerical model is developed for each configuration of the cold plate to demonstrate the merits of each modular design. Parallel flow configurations are used to satisfy a uniform cooling requirement from each module, and it is shown that “U-shape” parallel flow “base” configuration cools the modules more uniformly than a “Z-shape” flow pattern due to intrinsic pressure distribution characteristics. A serial fluid flow configuration requires the minimum coolant flow rate with a gradually increasing device temperature along the flow direction. Two mixed (i.e., parallel + serial flow) configurations achieve either cooling performance similar to the U-shape configuration with slightly more than half of the coolant flow rate, or cooling of a specific module to a much lower temperature level. Generally speaking, the current cold plate design significantly extends its application to different situations with distinct cooling requirements.

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