Bionic Design and 3D Printing of Leaf-Vein Like Ceramic/Resin Composite Liquid Cooling Plates with Excellent Thermal Management Capacity

Abstract

Inspired by leaf vein structures, this study presents a bio-inspired channel liquid-cooled plate designed to enhance thermal management performance. Topological optimization and cross-sectional design are employed to reduce flow resistance and improve heat transfer efficiency. Among various cross-sectional shapes (rectangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, and elliptical), the elliptical section exhibited superior flow and thermal performance. Specifically, it achieves a 31.7% improvement in temperature reduction capability (ΔT) compared to the rectangular section, while also demonstrating a 20.7% increase in average flow velocity and better temperature uniformity. The material demonstrates excellent thermal and electrical properties suitable for high-temperature applications, as evidenced by FT-IR analysis, thermal conductivity measurements (4.489 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ at 25 °C and 5.557 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ at 150 °C), specific heat capacity (1.000 J g⁻¹ K⁻¹ at 25 °C and 1.276 J g⁻¹ K⁻¹ at 150 °C), and electrical resistivity (1.06 GΩ cm at 25 °C with stability at elevated temperatures). Infrared thermography shows significant temperature reductions for the bio-inspired design under various initial temperatures, with its thermal conductivity being twice that of conventional straight channels. This study highlights the superior fluid flow efficiency, thermal dissipation, and structural stability of the bio-inspired liquid-cooled plate, demonstrating its promising potential for high-power electronic heat management applications.