Numerical investigation of liquid cooling cold plate for power control unit in fuel cell vehicle

•15 structure schemes are proposed to improve liquid cold plate’s performance by fins.•Optimization of fin configurations for curved channel is completed numerically.•At a same pitch-to-diameter ratio, thinner fins show better overall performance.•Attached fins perform better than detached fins disconnected from unheated endwall.•Elliptic fins are not suitable for the serpentine channel for high pressure loss.

This paper proposed fifteen structure schemes of the liquid-cooled plate for thermal control of the power control unit (PCU) in fuel cell vehicle (FCV). At the given serpentine channel with inconstant width, pin fin arrays with various configurations were arranged to improve the performance of three heating zones with multiple heat sources. Based on the same setup and boundary conditions, numerical simulations were conducted for different schemes. The solutions were validated by grid independence check and comparison with previous researches. Effects of fin geometrical parameters (such as diameter, height, fin pitch and shape) on pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics were investigated. Furthermore, two dimensionless factors ηH and ηP were quantified to evaluate the heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop augmentation. The dimensionless performance evaluation factor PEF was cited to assess overall performance of the cold plate. Based on three factors mentioned above, cooling performances of three heating zones and the whole plate were compared among all schemes. According to the performance comparison, scheme 12 employing circular fins with diameter of 4 mm was selected as the optimal solution for the cold plate.