Effects of vibration conditions on the heat transfer and flow characteristics of cold plates

Vibration inevitably causes the reliability reduction in the performance of liquid-based electronic cooling systems and components on the aircraft. Due to the coupling effect of liquid volume force and liquid–solid interaction force, the effects of vibration on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of cold plate are extraordinarily sophisticated and irregular. This work investigates the heat transfer and flow characteristics of cold plates with different structures under vibration environment, clarifying the effects of different frequencies, amplitudes, and directions on these properties of cold plates. Meanwhile, representative random vibration experiments are carried out to investigate the performance reliability of cold plates in typical service vibration environments. The results indicated that vibration significantly intensifies the pressure drop oscillation and enhances the heat transfer capacity of the cold plate. Compared with static conditions, the heat transfer coefficients of the rectangular ribbed cold plate (RRCP) and diamond ribbed cold plate (DRCP) increase by 5.94 % and 2.77 % at 30 Hz, 1.5 mm vibration environment. But the heat transfer coefficient variations of the mini-channel cold plate (MCCP) is slightly decreased with the increase in vibration frequency. In addition, the maximum amplitude of pressure drop oscillation of MCCP at 30 Hz is 306.18 Pa, and the maximum amplitudes of pressure drop oscillation of RRCP and DRCP increase from 29.23 Pa to 632.69 Pa and from 40.86 Pa to 612.62 Pa. The heat transfer performance of cold plates increases monotonically with the increase of vibration intensity. Random vibration mainly affects the flow parameters due to the limited vibration intensity during flight. More consideration should be given to fluctuations in system stability due to pressure drop oscillations. in engineering applications. This work contributes to promoting the engineering application of high-performance cold plates in avionics cooling.