Thermal performance for mini water-cooled cold plates covered with non-metallic polycarbonate (PC) is experimentally measured in this study. The mini cold plates are designed to reduce the overall weight of the cooling device for effective heat dissipation from a humanoid robot. The water-cooled cold plate has a 10×10 mm2 of base plate which is made of copper or aluminum. Two different types of enhanced surfaces are considered in the present study: copper pin-finned surface of 0.5×0.5 mm2 area and 1.5 mm high with 0.5 mm fin spacing and aluminum foam-finned surface of 92% porosity and 40 PPI (pores per inch). Heat transfer rates are measured according to the input power and the flow rate of cooling water. The surface temperature of the base plate and the cooling water temperatures at inlet and outlet of each cold plate are measured. From the results, it is found that the copper pin-finned cold plate shows better performance than the aluminum foam-finned cold plate in terms of thermal resistance and pressure drop.

Volume Subject Area:
Thermal Management - System Level Thermal Management
Topics:
Cooling, Plates (structures), Robots, Aluminum, Copper, Water, Energy dissipation, Flow (Dynamics), Heat, Heat transfer, Humanoid robots, Porosity, Pressure drop, Temperature, Thermal resistance, Water temperature, Weight (Mass)
This content is only available via PDF.
Copyright © 2009
 by ASME
You do not currently have access to this content.