I am structuring a conjugate heat-transfer model for a liquid-cooled cold plate made by laser powder bed fusion in copper alloy. The internal channels are as-built, so the measured inputs available for correlation are flow rate, pressure drop, inlet/outlet temperature, heat load, and the external contact-patch temperature.
This thermal design and validation workflow is the reference I am using to separate CFD inputs, measurable acceptance criteria, and test uncertainty.
My current sequence is:
- converge the hydraulic model against measured pressure drop before tuning heat-transfer assumptions;
- apply an effective channel roughness only within the measured range;
- compare both a uniform heat-flux patch and a mapped power-density boundary;
- correlate delta-T and thermal resistance at multiple flow points;
- keep material conductivity temperature-dependent and run a mesh-independence check near the walls.
For SimScale CHT, would you calibrate wall roughness first and then freeze it for the thermal runs, or solve hydraulic and thermal calibration together? I want to avoid a model that matches one operating point but has no predictive value.