Embedded thermal management produced via CoreFlow™ and its applications for aerospace thermal management systems
CoreFlow™ has been recently developed as an efficient alternative manufacturing process for thermal management systems. These include applications such as cold plates and heat exchangers for transporting and dissipating heat produced by electronic components (e.g. IGBTs, diodes, LEDs, CPUs/GPUs) and electric systems (e.g. motors, batteries, power supplies) or other liquid and heat handling applications. Flat and tubular demonstrators made of several aluminium, magnesium and copper alloys were successfully manufactured. Preliminary thermal transfer testing of aluminium cold plates manufactured by CoreFlow™ showed reduced thermal resistance with respect to conventional press-lock smooth tube cold plates with comparable volume for a given flow rate.
The present investigation addresses the manufacturing of liquid cooled plates for inverter stack assemblies. Channels exhibiting a cross section of 6x2mm were produced in AA6082-T6 plates measuring 300x200mm, with a thickness of 8mm and 12mm. Serpentine prototypes were produced and benchmarked against traditional manufacturing methods for a number of key performance variables, namely thermal efficiency, pressure loss and pump flow energy consumption. In comparison to established manufacturing methods, CoreFlow™ enabled a significant reduction in raw material input, total cycle time and component mass. The component is also easier to recycle as it is fabricated from a monolithic part.
The process is maturing for AA6xxx applications, but feasibility has been proven for other aluminium alloys, such as AA7075, which is also presented. The pertinence of developing CoreFlow™ in AA7075 for manufacturing aerospace thermal management systems and the pathway for the adoption of this technology in the aerospace sector are presented.