Numerical Simulation and Optimized Field-Driven Design of Triple Periodic Minimal Surface Structure Liquid-Cooling Radiator

This work investigates the design of liquid-cooled heat sinks for IGBT modules via optimizing the Triple Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) structure. The performance of heat sinks with different porosity TPMS structures was compared through the finite element simulation software Fluent. The results indicate that smaller porosity is conducive to improving the heat dissipation efficiency, but the difference in pressure between the entrance and exit increases. The field-driven design method is further adopted to adjust the porosity according to the temperature field distribution, and the TPMS channel structures were optimized by nTopology software. The results show that the optimized Schwarz P, Gyroid, and Diamond structures have a comparable effect on reducing the maximum surface temperature as that of TPMS structures with uniform porosity; however, the differential pressure at the inlet and outlet decreased remarkably by 94.8%, 90.8%, and 88.9%, respectively, compared to the structure with a uniform porosity of 0.32. The Nusselt numbers of the optimized Gyroid and Diamond structures increased by 19.2% and 12.3%, respectively, compared to their structures with a uniform porosity of 0.84. This study illustrates the advantages of the field-driven design in enhancing the heat dissipation and reducing pressure loss, which provides an effective design solution for the heat dissipation of IGBT modules.