I-Corps: Ferrofluid-Based Passive Cooling System for Electronic Devices

热磁对流尚未完全理解，部分原因是尚未开发出描述铁磁流体动力学的通用本构模型。支持原型开发的研究活动将有助于填补这一空白，因为准确的本构模型是铁磁流体动力学任何计算研究的必要条件。将开发新的本构模型，考虑铁磁流体的多尺度性质，即，与大规模的均匀磁化流体相比，微尺度模型中的颗粒负载流体。这些模型将使用实验数据进行测试。计算方法改编自分子动力学模拟和计算流体动力学中的标准技术。实验方法的灵感来自流变学和纳米材料表征的行业标准。这项工作将丰富铁流体力学文献，并有可能阻止未来的技术发展。这些发展的应用领域涵盖医学、材料科学和制造工艺。该项目将有助于进一步开发冷却数据中心和其他高热电子设备的技术，每年节省数十亿美元的能源。这种节能将产生重大的商业和环境影响。原型开发将支持铁磁流体合成和磁性纳米颗粒表面处理的重大进展。这些进展有望促进基于铁流体动力学的许多其他热管理解决方案的发展。

Thermomagnetic convection is not yet fully understood, due in part to the fact that a universal constitutive model describing ferrohydrodynamics has not yet been developed. Research activities supporting prototype development will help fill this gap, as accurate constitutive models are a necessity for any computational investigation of ferrohydrodynamics. New constitutive models will be developed that consider the multi-scale nature of ferrofluids, i.e., particle-laden fluid in the micro-scale model compared to a homogeneous magnetized fluid in the bulk-scale. Such models will be tested using experimental data. Computational methods are adapted from standard techniques in molecular dynamics simulations and computational fluid dynamics. Experimental methods are inspired by industry standards in rheology and nanomaterial characterization. The effort will enrich the ferrohydrodynamics literature and has the potential to stem future technology developments. Application areas of such developments span medicine, materials science and manufacturing processes. The project will help to further develop technology for cooling data centers and other high-heat electronic devices, providing billions of dollars in energy savings per year. This energy savings will have significant commercial and environmental impact. The prototype development will support significant advances in ferrofluid synthesis and surface treatment of magnetic nanoparticles. These advances are expected to catalyze the development of numerous other thermal management solutions based on ferrohydrodynamics.