A numerical and experimental study to evaluate performance of vascularized cooling plates

Abstract

The present paper reports on a numerical simulation and experimental validation of fluid flow and conjugate heat transfer characteristics of new vascular channels, whose cross-sections are semi-circular. The numerical analysis covers the Reynolds number range of 30-2000, with a cooling channel volume fraction of 0.04, pressure drop range of 30-10(5) Pa. Six flow configurations were considered: first, second, and third constructal structures with optimized hydraulic diameters and non-optimized hydraulic diameter for each system size 10 x 10, 20 x 20, and 50 x 50, respectively. The numerical results of the proposed vascular channels show that the channel configurations of the optimized constructs show much lower flow resistance and temperature distribution than those of the non-optimized constructs. It is also shown that the power component in the power-law relationship between mass flow rate and pressure drop decreases as the system size and mass flow rates increase. The numerical results are validated by experimental data, and with the two exhibiting excellent agreement in all cases. The validation study against the experimental data shows that the presented numerical model is a reliable tool for predicting the performance of cooling plates under practical operating conditions and for the design of self healing or cooling system. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.