Topology Optimization of Liquid Cooling Plate Channels for Enhanced Thermal Management in Electronic Devices

This study addresses the cooling needs of electronic devices by employing topology optimization to design flow channel structures within liquid cooling plates, specifically targeting the thermal management of a 70W thermoelectric cooler hot end. Utilizing the variable density method and a Brinkman porous media model, coupled with fluid dynamics and heat transfer equations, a multi-objective optimization function is established to minimize both the average temperature and pressure drop. The relative importance of these objectives is balanced by a weighting factor w. Simulations using COMSOL software analyzed four inlet/outlet configurations (diagonal, same-side, single-inlet, dual-inlet) under constraints of Reynolds number 100 and fluid volume fraction 0.5, investigating flow channel evolution patterns and temperature distribution characteristics. The research results show:The weighting factor significantly impacts channel structure - low values (w<0.5) reduce flow resistance but create localized "stagnant fluid lakes,"causing temperature non-uniformity; high values (w>0.7) enhance heat transfer via dense branched channels but increase pressure drop by up to 130%, recommending an engineering range of w=0.7-0.9; The dual-inlet configuration with w>0.7 forms a symmetric "figure-eight"channel network, reducing the maximum temperature difference by 38% and improving temperature uniformity by over 60% compared to the single-inlet design; The diagonal outlet layout provides superior temperature uniformity over the same-side layout. The optimized dual-inlet solution (w=0.7) achieves an average temperature of 306.69K and a pressure drop of 0.49Pa, offering an efficient design paradigm for cooling high-power-density electronic devices.