Design and investigation of a topology-optimized liquid cold plate integrated with metal-skeleton-enhanced phase change material for transient heat shock mitigation

Abstract

High-power-density energy system components are subjected to coupled steady heat loads and short-duration heat shocks, for which conventional liquid cold plates provide limited transient buffering. In this study, an integrated parallel phase change material (PCM) cold plate with a topology-optimized channel (IPCP) was proposed by incorporating inter-channel metal-skeleton-enhanced PCM (MSE-PCM) for transient heat shock mitigation. A dual-objective topology optimization strategy was used to design the liquid cooling channel with balanced heat transfer enhancement and flow resistance reduction. A topology-optimized cold plate without PCM (TOCP) and a series PCM cold plate (SPCP) were used as references. A three-dimensional transient conjugate heat transfer model with phase change was established and experimentally validated. The IPCP showed only a small steady-state temperature penalty relative to the TOCP, while markedly improving heat shock resistance. Under 1500–2100 W heat shocks, the IPCP reduced the peak temperature by approximately 50–67 K relative to the TOCP and by 21–47 K relative to the SPCP. At 2100 W, the safety delay time below 353.15 K reached 20.9 s, about 2.2 times that of the SPCP. Mechanism analysis revealed that the advantage of the IPCP arises from sustained parallel energy partition between continuous liquid cooling and gradual latent heat utilization, which delays PCM depletion and stabilizes thermal resistance. Sensitivity analysis showed stronger dependence on MSE-PCM effective thermal conductivity and latent heat than on specific heat capacity. Repeated heat shock experiments further demonstrated stable thermal and hydraulic performance over 30 cycles without visible PCM leakage.