Reduced-Order Fluidic Model for Flow Instabilities in Two-Phase Microfluidic Heat Exchangers

Author(s):  
Josef L. Miler ◽  
Gamal Refai-Ahmed ◽  
Maxat N. Touzelbaev ◽  
Milnes P. David ◽  
Julie E. Steinbrenner ◽  
...  

Two-phase microfluidic heat exchangers have the potential to provide high-heat flux cooling with lower thermal resistance and lower pumping power than single-phase heat exchangers. However, the process of phase change in two-phase heat exchangers can cause flow instabilities that lead to microchannel dryout and device failure [1–3]. Modeling these flow instabilities remains challenging because the key physics are highly coupled and occur over disparate time and length scales. This work introduces a new approach to capture transient thermal and fluidic transport with a reduced-order model consisting of fluidic, thermal, and phase-change submodels. The present study presents a reduced-order, transient, multichannel fluidic circuit submodel for integration into this proposed modeling approach. The fluidic submodel is applicable in flow regimes in which a thin liquid film exists around the bubble. Flow response to boiling is modeled considering bubble overpressure. An adaptive time step approach is used to treat the rapid flow response at short time scales after initial bubble vaporization. Using a seeded bubble technique for testing two-phase flow response, the model predicts a stability threshold at 0.015 W of localized superheating for two 100-micron square channels in parallel with a pump flow rate of 0.15 ml/min. Once integrated with the proposed reduced-order thermal and phase change models, this fluidic circuit model will yield criteria for stable two-phase heat exchanger operation considering factors such as pumping pressure, channel geometry, and applied heat flux that can be compared to experimental observations.

Author(s):  
Oyuna Angatkina ◽  
Andrew Alleyne

Two-phase cooling systems provide a viable technology for high–heat flux rejection in electronic systems. They provide high cooling capacity and uniform surface temperature. However, a major restriction of their application is the critical heat flux condition (CHF). This work presents model predictive control (MPC) design for CHF avoidance in two-phase pump driven cooling systems. The system under study includes multiple microchannel heat exchangers in series. The MPC controller performance is compared to the performance of a baseline PI controller. Simulation results show that while both controllers are able to maintain the two-phase cooling system below CHF, MPC has significant reduction in power consumption compared to the baseline controller.


Author(s):  
Geping Wu

Safety concerns of nuclear reactors have attracted the attention of researchers on flow instabilities in natural circulation boiling loops. In this theoretical study, a drift flux model which solves the conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy applicable to boiling two-phase natural circulation systems is adopted. The influence of two-phase flow parameters such as drift velocity and void distribution parameter on the loop flow rate is weak. The model is used to analysis the effects of heat flux and inlet subcooling on steady circulation flow rate. High circulation flow rate is accompanied by high heat flux and low inlet subcooling. According to the region and number of meeting points which connects the resistance pressure drop curve and the driving pressure drop curve, flow excursion and density-wave instability sometimes may occur. Further, investigations are carried out to study the effect of heat flux and system pressure on the instabilities region in natural circulation.


Author(s):  
Milnes P. David ◽  
Tarun Khurana ◽  
Carlos Hidrovo ◽  
Beth L. Pruitt ◽  
Kenneth E. Goodson

The increasing complexity of modern integrated circuits and need for high-heat flux removal with low junction temperatures motivates research in a wide variety of cooling and refrigeration technologies. Two-phase liquid cooling is especially attractive due to high efficiency and low thermal resistances. While two-phase microfluidic cooling offers important benefits in required flow rate and pump size, there are substantial challenges related to flow stability and effective superheating. This work investigates the use of hydrophobic membrane to locally vent the vapor phase in microfluidic heat exchangers. Previous work has demonstrated selective venting of gas in microstructures and we extend this concept to two-phase heat exchangers. This paper details the design, fabrication and preliminary testing of the novel heat exchanger. Proof-of-concept of the device, carried out using an isothermal air-water mixture, found the air-mass venting efficiency exceeding 95%. Two-phase, thermal operation of the heat exchanger found the pressure-drop to be smaller compared to a two-phase, non-venting model. The paper also includes a discussion of design challenges such as membrane leakage and optical inaccessibility. The favorable results demonstrated in this first-generation, vapor-venting, micromachined, heat exchanger motivates further study of this and other novel microstructures aimed at mitigating the negative effects of phase-change. With continued research and optimization, we believe two-phase cooling is a viable solution for high heat flux generating electronics.


Author(s):  
Rongliang Zhou ◽  
Juan Catano ◽  
Tiejun Zhang ◽  
John T. Wen ◽  
Greg J. Michna ◽  
...  

Steady-state modeling and analysis of a two-loop cooling system for high heat flux removal applications are studied. The system structure proposed consists of a primary pumped loop and a vapor compression cycle (VCC) as the secondary loop to which the pumped loop rejects heat. The pumped loop consists of evaporator, condenser, pump, and bladder liquid accumulator. The pumped loop evaporator has direct contact with the heat generating device and CHF must be higher than the imposed heat fluxes to prevent device burnout. The bladder liquid accumulator adjusts the pumped loop pressure level and, hence, the subcooling of the refrigerant to avoid pump cavitation and to achieve high critical heat flux (CHF) in the pumped loop evaporator. The vapor compression cycle of the two-loop cooling system consists of evaporator, liquid accumulator, compressor, condenser and electronic expansion valve. It is coupled with the pumped loop through a fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger that serves as both the vapor compression cycle evaporator and the pumped loop condenser. The liquid accumulator of the vapor compression cycle regulates the cycle active refrigerant charge and provides saturated vapor to the compressor at steady state. The heat exchangers are modeled with the mass, momentum, and energy balance equations. Due to the projected incorporation of microchannels in the pumped loop to enhance the heat transfer in heat sinks, the momentum equation, rarely seen in previous refrigeration system modeling efforts, is included to capture the expected significant microchannel pressure drop witnessed in previous experimental investigations. Electronic expansion valve, compressor, pump, and liquid accumulators are modeled as static components due to their much faster dynamics compared with heat exchangers. The steady-state model can be used for static system design that includes determining the total refrigerant charge in the vapor compression cycle and the pumped loop to accommodate the varying heat load, sizing of various components, and parametric studies to optimize the operating conditions for a given heat load. The effect of pumped loop pressure level, heat exchangers geometries, pumped loop refrigerant selection, and placement of the pump (upstream or downstream of the evaporator) are studied. The two-loop cooling system structure shows both improved coefficient of performance (COP) and CHF overthe single loop vapor compression cycle investigated earlier by authors for high heat flux removal.


2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 105002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiv Govind Singh ◽  
Amit Agrawal ◽  
Siddhartha P Duttagupta
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Jensen Hoke ◽  
Todd Bandhauer ◽  
Jack Kotovsky ◽  
Julie Hamilton ◽  
Paul Fontejon

Liquid-vapor phase change heat transfer in microchannels offers a number of significant advantages for thermal management of high heat flux laser diodes, including reduced flow rates and near constant temperature heat rejection. Modern laser diode bars can produce waste heat loads >1 kW cm−2, and prior studies show that microchannel flow boiling heat transfer at these heat fluxes is possible in very compact heat exchanger geometries. This paper describes further performance improvements through area enhancement of microchannels using a pyramid etching scheme that increases heat transfer area by ∼40% over straight walled channels, which works to promote heat spreading and suppress dry-out phenomenon when exposed to high heat fluxes. The device is constructed from a reactive ion etched silicon wafer bonded to borosilicate to allow flow visualization. The silicon layer is etched to contain an inlet and outlet manifold and a plurality of 40μm wide, 200μm deep, 2mm long channels separated by 40μm wide fins. 15μm wide 150μm long restrictions are placed at the inlet of each channel to promote uniform flow rate in each channel as well as flow stability in each channel. In the area enhanced parts either a 3μm or 6μm sawtooth pattern was etched vertically into the walls, which were also scalloped along the flow path with the a 3μm periodicity. The experimental results showed that the 6μm area-enhanced device increased the average maximum heat flux at the heater to 1.26 kW cm2 using R134a, which compares favorably to a maximum of 0.95 kw cm2 dissipated by the plain walled test section. The 3μm area enhanced test sections, which dissipated a maximum of 1.02 kW cm2 showed only a modest increase in performance over the plain walled test sections. Both area enhancement schemes delayed the onset of critical heat flux to higher heat inputs.


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