Computational Modeling of Extreme Heat Flux Microcooler for GaN-Based HEMT

Author(s):  
Hyoungsoon Lee ◽  
Yoonjin Won ◽  
Farzad Houshmand ◽  
Catherine Gorle ◽  
Mehdi Asheghi ◽  
...  

This study explores an extreme heat flux limit of microcooler for GaN-based HEMTs (high electron mobile transistors) which have local power densities exceeding 30 kW/cm2 using both solid conduction simulation and single-phase/two-phase conjugate simulations. Solid conduction simulation models are developed for full geometry of the microcooler to account for the overall thermal resistances from GaN HEMT to working fluid. This allows investigating the temperature distribution of the suggested microcooler. Parametric studies are also performed to investigate the impact of geometries and heat transfer coefficients on the junction temperature. The solid conduction simulation results using COMSOL Multiphysics agree well with single-cell ANSYS Fluent simulation results. Separately, fluid-solid conjugate CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation models provide the detailed flow information in the microchannel using a single-channel geometry with symmetry boundary conditions. Single-phase CFD simulations obtain the lower bound of total pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient at the microchannel walls for a mass velocity range of G = 6000–24000 kg/m2-s. The local temperatures and velocity distributions are reported that can help with identifying the locations of the maximum velocity and recirculation regions that are susceptible to dryouts. Two additional alternative tapered inlet designs are proposed to alleviate the significant pressure loss at the entrance of the SiC channel. The impact of the tapered inlet designs on pressure drops and heat transfer coefficients is also investigated. Two-phase simulations in microchannel are conducted using Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) method embedded in ANSYS Fluent to investigate two-phase flow patterns, flow boiling, and temperature distributions within the GaN HEMT device and SiC etched mircochannels. A user-defined function (UDF) accounts for the phase change process due to boiling at the microchannel walls. The results show that the time relaxation factor, ri has a strongly influence on both numerical convergence and flow solutions.

Author(s):  
Devin Pellicone ◽  
Alfonso Ortega ◽  
Marcelo del Valle ◽  
Steven Schon

Advances in concentrating photovoltaics technology have generated a need for more effective thermal management techniques. Research in photovoltaics has shown that there is a more than 50% decrease in PV cell efficiency when operating temperatures approach 60°C. It is estimated that a waste heat load in excess of 500 W/cm2 will need to be dissipated at a solar concentration of 10,000 suns. Mini- and micro-scale heat exchangers provide the means for large heat transfer coefficients with single phase flow due to the inverse proportionality of Nusselt number with respect to the hydraulic diameter. For very high heat flux situations, single phase forced convection in micro-channels may not be sufficient and hence convective flow boiling in small scale heat exchangers has gained wider scrutiny due to the much higher achievable heat transfer coefficients due to latent heat of vaporization and convective boiling. The purpose of this investigation is to explore a practical and accurate modeling approach for simulating multiphase flow and heat transfer in mini- and micro-channel heat exchangers. The work is specifically aimed at providing a modeling tool to assist in the design of a mini/micro-scale stacked heat exchanger to operate in the boiling regime. The flow side energy and momentum equations have been implemented using a one-dimensional homogeneous approach, with local heat transfer coefficients and friction factors supplied by literature correlations. The channel flow solver has been implemented in MATLAB™ and embedded within the COMSOL™ FEM solver which is used to model the solid side conduction problem. The COMSOL environment allows for parameterization of design variables leading to a fully customizable model of a two-phase heat exchanger.


Author(s):  
Devin Pellicone ◽  
Alfonso Ortega ◽  
Marcelo del Valle ◽  
Steven Schon

Mini- and micro-scale heat exchangers provide the means for large heat transfer coefficients with single phase flow due to the inverse proportionality of Nusselt number with respect to the hydraulic diameter. For very high heat flux situations, single phase forced convection in micro-channels may not be sufficient and hence convective flow boiling in small scale heat exchangers has gained wider scrutiny due to the much higher achievable heat transfer coefficients due to latent heat of vaporization and convective boiling. The purpose of this investigation is to explore a practical and accurate modeling approach for simulating multiphase flow and heat transfer in stacked mini- and micro-channel heat exchangers. The work is specifically aimed at providing the framework for the optimization of such devices. The model algorithm is described in detail and the effects of channel hydraulic diameter ranging from 150–300 μm and number of stacked layers on the thermal and hydrodynamic performance of the heat sinks are explored. The results from the two parameter study are used to suggest a design path for creating an optimal two-phase stacked microchannel heat exchanger.


Author(s):  
Todd M. Bandhauer ◽  
Taylor A. Bevis

The principle limit for achieving higher brightness of laser diode arrays is thermal management. State of the art laser diodes generate heat at fluxes in excess of 1 kW cm−2 on a plane parallel to the light emitting edge. As the laser diode bars are packed closer together, it becomes increasingly difficult to remove large amounts of heat in the diminishing space between neighboring diode bars. Thermal management of these diode arrays using conduction and natural convection is practically impossible, and, therefore, some form of forced convective cooling must be utilized. Cooling large arrays of laser diodes using single-phase convection heat transfer has been investigated for more than two decades by multiple investigators. Unfortunately, either large fluid temperature increases or very high flow velocities must be utilized to reject heat to a single phase fluid, and the practical threshold for single phase convective cooling of laser diodes appears to have been reached. In contrast, liquid-vapor phase change heat transport can occur with a negligible increase in temperature and, due to a high enthalpy of vaporization, at comparatively low mass flow rates. However, there have been no prior investigations at the conditions required for high brightness edge emitting laser diode arrays: >1 kW cm−2 and >10 kW cm−3. In the current investigation, flow boiling heat transfer at heat fluxes up to 1.1 kW cm−2 was studied in a microchannel heat sink with plurality of very small channels (45 × 200 microns) using R134a as the phase change fluid. The high aspect ratio channels (4.4:1) were manufactured using MEMS fabrication techniques, which yielded a large heat transfer surface area to volume ratio in the vicinity of the laser diode. To characterize the heat transfer performance, a test facility was constructed that enabled testing over a range of fluid saturation temperatures (15°C to 25°C). Due to the very small geometric features, significant heat spreading was observed, necessitating numerical methods to determine the average heat transfer coefficient from test data. This technique is crucial to accurately calculate the heat transfer coefficients for the current investigation, and it is shown that the analytical approach used by many previous investigations requires assumptions that are inadequate for the very small dimensions and heat fluxes observed in the present study. During the tests, the calculated outlet vapor quality exceeded 0.6 and the base heat flux reached a maximum of 1.1 kW cm−2. The resulting experimental heat transfer coefficients are found to be as large a 58.1 kW m−2 K−1 with an average uncertainty of ±11.1%, which includes uncertainty from all measured and calculated values, required assumptions, and geometric discretization error from meshing.


Author(s):  
Koichi Araga ◽  
Keisuke Okamoto ◽  
Keiji Murata

This paper presents an experimental investigation of the forced convective boiling of refrigerant HCFC123 in a mini-tube. The inner diameters of the test tubes, D, were 0.51 mm and 0.30 mm. First, two-phase frictional pressure drops were measured under adiabatic conditions and compared with the correlations for conventional tubes. The frictional pressure drop data were lower than the correlation for conventional tubes. However, the data were qualitatively in accord with those for conventional tubes and were correlated in the form φL2−1/Xtt. Next, heat transfer coefficients were measured under the conditions of constant heat flux and compared with those for conventional tubes and for pool boiling. The heat transfer characteristics for mini-tubes were different from those for conventional tubes and quite complicated. The heat transfer coefficients for D = 0.51 mm increased with heat flux but were almost independent of mass flux. Although the heat transfer coefficients were higher than those for a conventional tube with D = 10.3 mm and for pool boiling in the low quality region, they decreased gradually with increasing quality. The heat transfer coefficients for D = 0.30 mm were higher than those for D = 0.51 mm and were almost independent of both mass flux and heat flux.


1996 ◽  
Vol 118 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Copeland

Experimental measurements of multiple nozzle submerged jet array impingement single-phase and boiling heat transfer were made using FC-72 and 1 cm square copper pin fin arrays, having equal width and spacing of 0.1 and 0.2 mm, with aspect ratios from 1 to 5. Arrays of 25 and 100 nozzles were used, with diameters of 0.25 to 1.0 mm providing nozzle area from 5 to 20 mm2 (5 to 20% of the heat source base area). Flow rates of 2.5 to 10 cm3/s (0.15 to 0.6 l/min) were studied, with nozzle velocities from 0.125 to 2 m/s. Single nozzles and smooth surfaces were also evaluated for comparison. Single-phase heat transfer coefficients (based on planform area) from 2.4 to 49.3 kW/m2 K were measured, while critical heat flux varied from 45 to 395 W/cm2. Correlations of the single-phase heat transfer coefficient and critical heat flux as functions of pin fin dimensions, number of nozzles, nozzle area and liquid flow rate are provided.


Author(s):  
Suizheng Qiu ◽  
Minoru Takahashi ◽  
Guanghui Su ◽  
Dounan Jia

Water single-phase and nucleate boiling heat transfer were experimentally investigated in vertical annuli with narrow gaps. The experimental data about water single-phase flow and boiling two-phase flow heat transfer in narrow annular channel were accumulated by two test sections with the narrow gaps of 1.0mm and 1.5mm. Empirical correlations to predict the heat transfer of the single-phase flow and boiling two-phase flow in the narrow annular channel were obtained, which were arranged in the forms of the Dittus-Boelter for heat transfer coefficients in a single-phase flow and the Jens-Lottes formula for a boiling two-phase flow in normal tubes, respectively. The mechanism of the difference between the normal channel and narrow annular channel were also explored. From experimental results, it was found that the turbulent heat transfer coefficients in narrow gaps are nearly the same to the normal channel in the experimental range, and the transition Reynolds number from a laminar flow to a turbulent flow in narrow annuli was much lower than that in normal channel, whereas the boiling heat transfer in narrow annular gap was greatly enhanced compared with the normal channel.


Author(s):  
Wenhai Li ◽  
Ken Alabi ◽  
Foluso Ladeinde

Over the years, empirical correlations have been developed for predicting saturated flow boiling [1–15] and condensation [16–30] heat transfer coefficients inside horizontal/vertical tubes or micro-channels. In the present work, we have examined 30 of these models, and modified many of them for use in compact plate-fin heat exchangers. However, the various correlations, which have been developed for pipes and ducts, have been modified in our work to make them applicable to extended fin surfaces. The various correlations have been used in a low-order, one-dimensional, finite-volume type numerical integration of the flow and heat transfer equations in heat exchangers. The NIST’s REFPROP database [31] is used to account for the large variations in the fluid thermo-physical properties during phase change. The numerical results are compared with Yara’s experimental data [32]. The validity of the various boiling and condensation models for a real plate-fin heat exchanger design is discussed. The results show that some of the modified boiling and condensation correlations can provide acceptable prediction of heat transfer coefficient for two-phase flows in compact plate-fin heat exchangers.


Author(s):  
Sunil Mehendale

In HVACR equipment, internally enhanced round tube (microfin) designs such as axial, cross-grooved, helical, and herringbone are commonly used to enhance the boiling and condensing performance of evaporators, condensers, and heat pumps. Typically, such tubes are mechanically expanded by a mandrel into a fin pack to create an interference fit between the tube outside surface and the fin collar to minimize the thermal contact resistance between tube and fin. However, during this expansion process, the internal enhancements undergo varying amounts of deformation, which degrades the in-tube thermal performance. Extensive data on condensing heat transfer coefficients in microfin tubes have been reported in the open literature. However, researchers have seldom used expanded tubes to acquire and report such data. Hence, it is always questionable to use such pristine tube data for designing heat exchangers and HVACR systems. Furthermore, the HVACR industry has been experiencing steeply rising copper costs, and this trend is expected to continue in coming years. So, many equipment manufacturers and suppliers are actively converting tubes from copper to aluminum. However, because of appreciable differences between the material properties of aluminum and copper, as well as other manufacturing variables, such as mandrel dimensions, lubricant used, etc., tube expansion typically deforms aluminum fins more than copper fins. Based on an analysis of the surface area changes arising from tube expansion, and an assessment of the best extant in-tube condensation heat transfer correlations, this work proposes a method of estimating the impact of tube expansion on in-tube condensation heat transfer. The analysis leads to certain interesting and useful findings correlating fin geometry and in-tube condensation thermal resistance. This method can then be applied to more realistically design HVACR heat exchangers and systems.


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