A COMBINED ACTIVE (PIEZOS) AND PASSIVE (MICROSTRUCTURING) PARTIAL FLOW-BOILING APPROACH FOR STABLE HIGH HEAT-FLUX COOLING WITH DIELECTRIC FLUIDS

Abstract

Controlled but explosive growth in vaporization rates is made feasible by ultrasonic acoustothermal heating of the microlayers associated with microscale nucleating bubbles within the microstructured boiling surface/region of a millimeter-scale heat exchanger (HX). The HX is 5 cm long and has a 1 cm × 5 mm rectangular cross section that uses saturated partial flow-boiling operations of HFE-7000. Experiments use layers of woven copper mesh to form a microstructured boiling surface/region and its nano/microscale amplitude ultrasonic (~1-6 MHz) and sonic (< 2 kHz, typically) vibrations induced by a pair of very thin ultrasonic piezoelectric-transducers (termed piezos) that are placed and actuated from outside the heat-sink. The ultrasonic frequencies are for substructural microvibrations whereas the lower sonic frequencies are for suitable resonant structural microvibrations that assist in bubble removal and liquid filling processes. The flow and the piezos' actuation control allow an approximately 5-fold increase in heat transfer coefficient value, going from about 9000 W/m²-°C associated with microstructured no-piezos cases to 50,000 W/ m²-°C at a representative heat flux of about 25 W/cm². The partial boiling approach is enabled by one inlet and two exit ports. Further, significant increases to current critical heat flux values (~70 W/cm²) are possible and are being reported elsewhere. The electrical energy consumed (in W) for generating nano/micrometer amplitude vibrations is a small percentage (currently < 3%, eventually < 1% by design) of the total heat removed (in W), which is a heat removal rate of 125 W for the case reported here.