Autonomous Vehicle Cold Plate Cooling With Low Pressure Drop
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles face challenges in cooling high-powered processors due to the volume and mass requirements of existing cooling hardware, which detract from payload capacity and reduce energy efficiency, necessitating a compact and lightweight electronics cooling system with low pressure drop.
Innovation Solution
A cooling apparatus comprising a heat exchanger with extended fins, a fan, and a cold plate with mated plates forming liquid passages, along with a pump that forces liquid through these passages to efficiently transfer thermal energy from processors to ambient air, minimizing pressure drop and energy consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If liquid cooling hardware is added to cool high-powered processors, then thermal management effectiveness is improved, but vehicle mass and volume increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs thin-walled cold plates with integrated liquid passages that directly contact processor surfaces. These thin-film cooling structures achieve effective heat extraction while minimizing the mass and volume of the cooling hardware, directly resolving the contradiction between cooling effectiveness and hardware weight.
2Temperature
If liquid cooling hardware is added to cool high-powered processors, then thermal management effectiveness is improved, but vehicle volume increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates multiple cooling functions into a single compact assembly where cold plates with liquid passages are mated together to form integrated cooling units. This merging of cooling components reduces the overall volume of cooling hardware while maintaining effective thermal management of multiple processors.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent designs nested cooling configurations where cold plates are stacked and mated together, with liquid passages arranged in series or parallel configurations within the same volume envelope. This nesting approach maximizes cooling capacity within minimal space, reducing the volume penalty of the cooling system.
3Temperature
If liquid cooling hardware is added to cool high-powered processors, then thermal management effectiveness is improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes liquid flow parameters including flow rate, velocity, and distribution patterns through the cold plate passages to achieve maximum heat transfer efficiency at minimum pumping power. By carefully controlling these flow parameters, the system achieves effective cooling while minimizing the energy required to drive the liquid circulation.
4Temperature
If liquid cooling hardware is added to cool high-powered processors, then thermal management effectiveness is improved, but pressure drop increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the liquid cooling system into multiple cold plate units with individual liquid passages, allowing distributed heat extraction across different processor locations. This segmentation enables lower flow velocities in each passage, reducing pressure drop while maintaining effective cooling at each heat-generating component.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides effective thermal management for autonomous vehicle processors, enhancing performance by maintaining high-speed data processing while reducing the system's volume, mass, and energy consumption, thus improving the vehicle's range and payload capacity.
Implementation Method 1
The heat exchanger has first liquid passage with extended fins. The fan forces a portion of the ambient air past the extended fins.
Implementation Method 2
The fan forces a portion of the ambient air past the extended fins
Implementation Method 3
The fan forces a portion of the ambient air past the extended fins
Implementation Method 4
The cold plate comprising a first plate and second plate that are mated together to form a second liquid passage. The first plate has an outside face that is configured to receive a first electronic package and an inner face with extended surfaces.
Implementation Method 5
efficiently transfer thermal energy from processors to ambient air
Implementation Method 6
The pump forces liquid through the first and second liquid passages
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus to cool electronics in an autonomous vehicle, where the autonomous vehicle includes significant computing power to receive data from on-board sensor, cellular data and user interactions and to navigate an environment to a predetermined location. The cooling system includes a radiator, fan, pump and cold plate. The cold plate is formed from two plates with extended surfaces that are mated together so that the cavities around the extended surfaces form a flow passage. The electronics processing the data and navigating are mounted on the outside surface of the cold plate.