Basic Principles of Liquid Cooling Plate Thermal Flow

Liquid cooling plates operate by channeling coolant (typically water or glycol) through intricately designed internal passages. As the coolant flows through these channels, it absorbs heat from the heat-generating components and transports it away to an external radiator or heat exchanger. The effectiveness of this process depends on several critical factors:

1. Heat Transfer Coefficients: The efficiency of heat transfer between the plate surface and the coolant depends on the heat transfer coefficient, which is influenced by the type of coolant, flow rate, and surface area. Higher coefficients lead to more efficient heat dissipation.

2. Flow Pattern: The internal channel design of the cooling plate determines whether the coolant flow is laminar or turbulent. Turbulent flow enhances heat transfer due to the increased mixing of the coolant, while laminar flow offers less resistance but reduced heat transfer capability.

3. Thermal Conductivity: The material of the cooling plate, typically copper or aluminum, plays a pivotal role in how quickly heat can be conducted from the component to the coolant. Copper has higher thermal conductivity but is heavier and more expensive compared to aluminum.

4. Flow Rate: The coolant’s flow rate must be optimized to balance efficient heat transfer and pump power consumption. Too low a flow rate results in insufficient cooling, while too high a rate may cause excessive pressure and decreased thermal performance due to inadequate heat absorption time.

There are quite a lot of corresponding electronic heating elements on the liquid cooling plate, and the relative flow path bend will also increase greatly, so it will cause water pressure loss and heat dissipation efficiency. Therefore, for a good liquid cooling plate, the flow path design is a very important part of the liquid cooling plate.Lori engineers can optimize the liquid flow path design and construction of the liquid cooling plate to maximize cooling within liquid cooling system constraints such as pressure drop and flow.

Liquid cooling pipe runner

The analysis object is a liquid cooling plate module, including upper and lower cooling plates and copper pipes. Use the NX internal synchronous modeling tool or the fluid fill function to establish the flow path volume in the copper pipe.

The following points need to be considered in the structural design of the liquid cooling plate.

Heat exchange performance requirements: When the flow rate and the temperature difference between incoming and outgoing water are set, the temperature rise target of the heat source and the thermal resistance target of the radiator are achieved, and the heat exchange performance requirements are met.

Strength and pressure requirements: Some equipment, because of the use of the environment and the installation requirements inside the system, will make special instructions on the surface pressure of the liquid cooling plate and the overall force situation.

Anti-corrosion requirements: liquid cooling flow in the flow path for a long time, affected by high temperature, will aggravate the destruction of metal materials, and even blockage, affecting the heat dissipation efficiency;

Anti-leakage requirements: the design of the cover plate, the upper and lower end faces, the sealing strip, and even the welding method can realize the means of anti-leakage;

Low cost requirements: from the production and processing feasibility, material selection, process complexity, flow resistance, thermal resistance and other dimensions, reduce the cost of pump pressure, working hours and so on.