Enhanced thermal performance of a water-cooled cold plate with porous inserts fabricated by selective laser melting

Abstract

The paper presents an experimental investigation of the thermal and hydraulic performance of a new class of porous metallic foams with ordered arrangements of the Rhombi-Octet unit cell design for use in a water-cooled cold plate. Selective laser melting (SLM) was employed to fabricate the porous metallic foams of two different unit cell sizes. A closed-loop chilled water test facility was set up to perform the experimental investigation and the results of the SLM fabricated porous metallic foams were compared with those of a commercially available metallic foam of random tetrakaidecahedron-like unit cell structures. The permeability (K) and inertia coefficient (CE) of the various metallic foams were characterized using the Forchheimer-extended Darcy equation and it was determined that K can be enhanced by 3.3 times with an increase in unit cell size of the Rhombi-Octet design from 5 mm to 10 mm. In addition, the Rhombi-Octet metallic foam insert also exhibits up to 91% enhancement in the heat transfer coefficient (have) as compared to the empty channel cold plate and up to 47% as compared to the commercial metallic foam insert.