Evaluation of the steady state cooling of flat plate systems with different channel shapes: Experimental measurements and numerical simulations. Articles uri icon

publication date

  • March 2025

start page

  • 125377-1

end page

  • 125377-13

volume

  • 263

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1359-4311

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1873-5606

abstract

  • This study presents an experimental and numerical evaluation of the steady-state cooling of flat plate systems, with different shapes for the inner channel through which a coolant circulates. 3D-printed aluminum prototypes with five different channel configurations, namely square, fork, crateriform, salverform, and cruciform, were tested in an innovative experimental facility to collect high-accuracy experimental measurements of the impact of their shape on the cooling performance of the plates. The pressure drop and temperature distribution across each configuration were thoroughly analyzed. The original experimental results were compared against numerical simulations, which were validated and demonstrated to be capable of precisely capturing the fluid-dynamics and heat transfer characteristics of the different channel shapes. Deviations below 15 % were obtained among the different configurations for the pressure drop measurements and an average temperature deviation of less than 1.5 °C was predicted for both the mean and the maximum temperatures of the plates. Both the experimental and the numerical results demonstrated that the cruciform configuration presented superior performance than the rest of the configurations for equal pumping power consumption, being the best or second best in terms of maximum and average temperatures, maximum temperature variation, and temperature homogeneity. In contrast, the other configurations resulted in either higher maximum temperatures or lower temperature uniformity. These findings provide valuable information for the design of efficient cooling systems, particularly in applications like batteries for electric vehicles or photovoltaic cells, where temperature homogeneity and low maximum temperatures are critical.

subjects

  • Mechanical Engineering

keywords

  • cooling systems; flat plates; pressure drop; steady state; temperature distribution