scholarly journals Experimental Characterization of the Heat Transfer in Multi-Microchannel Heat Sinks for Two-Phase Cooling of Power Electronics

Fluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Gennaro Criscuolo ◽  
Wiebke Brix Markussen ◽  
Knud Erik Meyer ◽  
Björn Palm ◽  
Martin Ryhl Kærn

This study aims to characterize experimentally the heat transfer in micro-milled multi-microchannels copper heat sinks operating with flow boiling, in the attempt to contribute to the development of novel and high heat flux thermal management systems for power electronics. The working fluid was R-134a and the investigation was conducted for a nominal outlet saturation temperature of 30 ∘C. The microchannels were 1 cm long and covered a square footprint area of 1 cm2. Boiling curves starting at low vapor quality and average heat transfer coefficients were obtained for nominal channel mass fluxes from 250 kg/m2s to 1100 kg/m2s. The measurements were conducted by gradually increasing the power dissipation over a serpentine heater soldered at the bottom of the multi-microchannels, until a maximum heater temperature of 150 ∘C was reached. Infrared thermography was used for the heater temperature measurements, while high-speed imaging through a transparent top cover provided visual access over the entire length of the channels. The average heat transfer coefficient increased with the dissipated heat flux until a decrease dependent on hydrodynamic effects occurred, possibly due to incomplete wall wetting. Depending on the channel geometry, a peak value of 200 kW/m2K for the footprint heat transfer coefficient and a maximum dissipation of 620 W/cm2 at the footprint with a limit temperature of 150 ∘C could be obtained, showing the suitability of the investigated geometries in high heat flux cooling of power electronics. The experimental dataset was used to assess the prediction capability of selected literature correlations. The prediction method by Bertsch et al. gave the best agreement with a mean absolute percent error of 24.5%, resulting to be a good design tool for flow boiling in high aspect ratio multi-microchannels as considered in this study.

Author(s):  
Akira Matsui ◽  
Kazuhisa Yuki ◽  
Hidetoshi Hashizume

Detailed heat transfer characteristics of particle-sintered porous media and metal foams are evaluated to specify the important structural parameters suitable for high heat removal. The porous media used in this experiment are particle-sintered porous media made of bronze and SUS316L, and metal foams made of copper and nickel. Cooling water flows into the porous medium opposite to heat flux input loaded by a plasma arcjet. The result indicates that the bronze-particle porous medium of 100μm in pore size shows the highest performance and achieves heat transfer coefficient of 0.035MW/m2K at inlet heat flux 4.6MW/m2. Compared with the heat transfer performance of copper fiber-sintered porous media, the bronze particlesintered ones give lower heat transfer coefficient. However, the stable cooling conditions that the heat transfer coefficient does not depend on the flow velocity, were confirmed even at heat flux of 4.6MW/m2 in case of the bronze particle-sintered media, while not in the case of the copper-fiber sintered media. This signifies the possibility that the bronze-particle sintered media enable much higher heat flux removal of over 10MW/m2, which could be caused by higher permeability of the particle-sintered pore structures. Porous media with high permeability provide high performance of vapor evacuation, which leads to more stable heat removal even under extremely high heat flux. On the other hand, the heat transfer coefficient of the metal foams becomes lower because of the lower capillary and fin effects caused by too high porosity and low effective thermal conductivity. It is concluded that the pore structure having high performance of vapor evacuation as well as the high capillary and high fin effects is appropriate for extremely high heat flux removal of over 10MW/m2.


2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Avijit Bhunia ◽  
C. L. Chen

The necessity for an efficient thermal management system covering large areas is growing rapidly with the push toward more electric systems. A significant amount of research over the past 2 decades has conclusively proved the suitability of jet, droplet, or spray impingement for high heat flux cooling. However, all these research consider small heat source areas, typically about a few cm2. Can a large array of impingement pattern, covering a much wider area, achieve similar heat flux levels? This article presents liquid microjet array impingement cooling of a heat source that is about two orders of magnitude larger than studied in the previous works. Experiments are carried out with 441 jets of de-ionized water and a dielectric liquid HFE7200, each 200 μm diameter. The jets impinge on a 189 cm2 area surface, in free surface and confined jet configurations. The average heat transfer coefficient values of the present experiment are compared with correlations from the literature. While some correlations show excellent agreement, others deviate significantly. The ensuing discussion suggests that the post-impingement liquid dynamics, particularly the collision between the liquid fronts on the surface created from surrounding jets, is the most important criterion dictating the average heat transfer coefficient. Thus, similar thermal performance can be achieved, irrespective of the length scale, as long as the flow dynamics are similar. These results prove the scalability of the liquid microjet array impingement technique for cooling a few cm2 area to a few hundred cm2 area.


Author(s):  
Lulu Lv ◽  
Yanchen Fu ◽  
Bensi Dong ◽  
Jie Wen ◽  
Guoqiang Xu

Abstract The presented study numerically investigated the heat transfer characteristics of supercritical hydrocarbon fuel RP-3 in a vertical tube under overweight conditions with gravitational accelerations from 1g to 5g. The model was simplified as a vertical tube with the diameter of 1.8mm and the length of 250mm. Constant heat flux was applied to the wall, varying from 200kW/m2 to 700kW/m2. Variations of wall temperature and heat transfer coefficient under overweight conditions were obtained by simulation. The dimensionless buoyancy and thermal acceleration under different conditions were analyzed. The results show that the heat transfer is normal at low heat flux, while two types of heat transfer deterioration were observed in both upward and downward supercritical flow at high heat flux. The heat transfer coefficient of downward flow is generally higher than upward flow, and the difference between them becomes larger with the increase of gravitational acceleration. At high heat flux, when bulk temperature reaches the pseudo-critical temperature, the thermal acceleration will increase by 50% leading to the deterioration of heat transfer. However, after the pseudo-critical point, both buoyancy force and thermal acceleration decrease to negligible. The rise in gravitational acceleration enhances buoyancy force, but has no impact on the thermal acceleration. Based on the numerical analysis, two different criterion, Bo* and Kv, for supercritical RP-3 are obtained to present the influence of buoyancy and thermal acceleration.


Two-phase closed thermosiphon system for cooling high heat flux electronic devices was constructed and tested on a lab scale. The performance of the thermosyphon system was investigated using R-134a as a working fluid. The effect of heat flux and the refrigerant pressure on the evaporator side heat transfer coefficient were investigated. It was found that the heat transfer coefficient increases by increasing the heat flux on the evaporator or by reducing the inside pressure. The effect of heat transfer mode of the condenser (natural or forced) also affected the overall heat transfer coefficient in the cycle. At the 200W heating load, the values of the heat transfer coefficients were 32 and 1.5 kW/m². ˚C, for natural and forced convection modes, respectively. The temperature difference between the evaporator and the refrigerant saturation pressure was found to be dependent on heat flux and the pressure inside the system. At 40 W heating load, the heat transfer coefficient was calculated to be 500, 3000 and 7300 W/oC.m2 at 0.152, .135 and 0.117 reduced pressure, respectively. It can be concluded that such a thermosyphon system can be used to cool high heat flux devices. This can be done using an environmentally friendly refrigerant and without any need for power to force the convection at the condenser.


Author(s):  
Ehsan Yakhshi-Tafti ◽  
Howard Pearlman ◽  
Seung M. You

Forced two-phase cooling is investigated for handling high power electronics and laser applications having high heat flux and isothermality requirements. Experimental results are reported for minichannel heat sinks with and without enhanced boiling coatings showing increased heat transfer coefficients and higher critical heat flux for coated versus uncoated surfaces.


2013 ◽  
Vol 136 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Deng ◽  
S. W. Xie ◽  
X. D. Li ◽  
R. S. Wang

The flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of liquid nitrogen in three U-tubes with different curvature ratios were investigated experimentally. The effects of inlet pressure, heat flux, and curvature ratio on heat transfer characteristic are analyzed. The results indicate that the local heat transfer characteristics change obviously as fluid flows through the return bend, especially in the case of high heat flux. The drying out occurs near the inner wall of the return bend under high heat flux. A parameter Rh (down/up), which is defined as the ratio of heat transfer coefficient between the downstream and upstream section of U-bend, is proposed to evaluate the contributions of the curvature ratio to the heat transfer. It is found that the Rh (down/up) increases with the decrease of the curvature ratios. Furthermore, the experiments results of the average heat transfer coefficient are compared with the calculated results of the empirical correlations.


Author(s):  
Osamu Kawanami ◽  
Shih-Che Huang ◽  
Kazunari Kawakami ◽  
Itsuro Honda ◽  
Yousuke Kawashima ◽  
...  

In the present study, a detailed investigation of flow boiling in a transparent heated microtube was performed. The transparent heated tube was made by electroless gold plating method. The enclosed gas-liquid interface could be clearly recognized through the tube wall, and the inner wall temperature measurement and direct heating of the film were simultaneously conducted by using the tube. The experimental conditions were: tube diameter 1 mm, mass velocity 100 kg/m2s, inlet liquid sub-cooling 20 K and heat flux up to 384 kW/m2 in the open system. Flow fluctuation was minimized by employing a twin plunger pump. Among our experimental results, we observed a high-frequency fluctuation of the inner wall temperature and a sharp peak for the heat transfer coefficient with high heat flux conditions, which have not been reported in previous experiments. This abrupt increase in the heat transfer coefficient coincided with a slight rapid axial growth of an elongated bubble found in the observation of the flow behavior. Hence, in low heat flux conditions, the fluctuations of temperature and heat transfer coefficient are strongly suppressed except for the instances when there is no bubble in the tube.


Author(s):  
Avijit Bhunia ◽  
C. L. Chen

The necessity for high heat flux cooling over large areas is growing rapidly with the increasing push towards more electric systems. A significant amount of research over the past two decades has conclusively proved the suitability of impingement cooling, such as jet and droplet array, spray, etc. However all these works are focused on a small heat source area, typically about a few cm2. Can a large array of impingement pattern covering a much wider area achieve similar heat flux levels? In pursuit of an answer, this article presents liquid micro-jet array impingement cooling of a heat source that is about two orders of magnitude larger in size compared to the previous works. Experiments are carried out with 441 jets of water and dielectric liquid HFE7200, each 200 μm diameter, impinging on a 189 cm2 area surface, in free surface and confined jet configurations. The measured values of average heat transfer coefficient are compared with correlations from the literature. While some correlations show excellent agreement, others deviate significantly. The ensuing discussion suggests that the post impingement liquid dynamics, particularly the collision between the liquid fronts on the surface created from surrounding jets, is the most important criterion dictating the average heat transfer coefficient. Thus, similar thermal performance can be achieved irrespective of the length scale, as long as the flow dynamics are similar. These results decisively prove the scalability of the liquid micro-jet array impingement technique for cooling a few cm2 area to 100s of cm2 area.


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