Liquid-Cooled Cold Plate for Automotive Power Electronics with Shark-Inspired Flow Guides
Company Size
1-10
Region
- Europe
Country
- Italy
Product
- nTopology
- Puntozero Cold Plate
Tech Stack
- Additive Manufacturing
- Field-Driven Design
- Computational Tomography
Implementation Scale
- Pilot projects
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Innovation Output
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation
- Analytics & Modeling - Generative AI
- Functional Applications - Product Lifecycle Management Systems (PLM)
Applicable Industries
- Aerospace
- Automotive
- Consumer Goods
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Additive Manufacturing
- Digital Twin
- Predictive Quality Analytics
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Dynamis PRC is the Formula Student team of Politecnico di Milano, a prestigious technical university in Italy. The team participates in the Formula SAE Electric competition, which serves as a platform for testing and showcasing innovations in drivetrain technology and fuel efficiency in a high-performance setting. Puntozero, a company specializing in advanced engineering solutions, partnered with Dynamis PRC to tackle the challenge of optimizing the cooling system for the race car's power electronics. The collaboration aimed to leverage additive manufacturing and advanced design techniques to achieve significant improvements in cooling efficiency and weight reduction.
The Challenge
The engineers of Puntozero faced the challenge of redesigning the cold plate of the power electronics in Dynamis PRC’s electric race car for additive manufacturing. The primary issues identified were the non-uniform flow near the curvatures of the duct and the insufficient heat transfer surface area. These problems needed to be addressed to optimize the cooling efficiency and overall performance of the race car's power electronics. The team aimed to create a more efficient cooling system that could handle the high-performance demands of the Formula SAE Electric competition.
The Solution
Puntozero engineers drew inspiration from the structure of shark scales to create a directional lamellar geometry that conforms to the duct of the cold plate. This design stirs the flow around the channel corners, enhancing the heat transfer surface area by 300%. The flow guides are based on a gyroid lattice, warped using advanced Field-Driven Design techniques. For the main structure of the heatsink, a diamond TPMS lattice with progressively decreasing thickness was selected. This external lattice reduced the weight and production cost of the component, improved its manufacturability, and increased the contact surface area with the power electronics to promote heat transfer. The cold plate prototype was additively manufactured in a powder alloy with a consistency close to pure aluminum. Computational tomography (CT) scanning was used to ensure the channel was free from powder and that the part was manufactured within specification and without imperfections.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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