Date of Award

9-22-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Engineering, MSE

First Advisor

Kwangkook Jeong

Committee Members

Jeongmoon Park; Thomas Leimkuehler

Abstract

An experimental investigation was carried out to study the effects of trapezoidal vortex generators (VGs) as a method of thermal enhancement within cold plate heat exchangers. Three different cold plates were imbedded with VGs in the bottom of the flow passage of varying sizes (h/H = 0.195, 0.253, 0.36) and quantity, as well as a cold plate with no VGs to be used as a comparative baseline. Testing was conducted under the laminar, transitional, and turbulent flow regime (Re = 1000 to 5500) using distilled water as the coolant. Experimental results indicate that the addition of VGs provide a positive impact on thermal enhancement, but also incur increased pressure drop through the plate. The overall thermal-hydraulic performance was evaluated and observed that the h/H=0.253 provides the greatest enhancement (~18%), and all VG sizes provide the highest benefit within the laminar and transitional flow regimes.

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