Compact Spray Cooling Module for Viable High-heat-flux Thermal Management

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The rapid technological advancements in microelectronics and power electronics have been accompanied by continuous miniaturization and power increase of electronic components. Large amounts of heat need to transfer through small areas, while temperature rises must be below safety limits that are dictated by material and reliability constraints. To handle the high heat fluxes, there is an urgent need for aggressive and innovative liquid cooling techniques. Despite its highest cooling effectiveness demonstrated by numerous research studies, spray cooling has long been facing significant gap from being a viable cooling technique. This research will close the longstanding research-application gap by developing a Compact Spray Cooling Module (CSCM), which has internal spray impingement and can be directly mounted for cooling.*** CSCM has a novel spray generator that generates predictable, controllable and effective spray flow. CSCM can cool electronic components using water or other non-dielectric coolants. This will be achieved by developing an electrically-insulating, thermally-conductive, and surface-enhanced wall using Aluminum Nitride plate and copper micro-particles. CSCM has efficient fluid management so that vapor and liquid are constantly removed to sustain effective free-surface flows inside CSCM. CSCM is different from all previous spray cooling setups in terms of spray, surface, and fluid management. Fundamental understanding of its unique fluid dynamics and heat transfer is crucial to the development of CSCM. In the Thermal Management & Multiphase Flows Lab at UBC Okanagan, extensive experimental studies combined with theoretical analyses and numerical simulations will be conducted to investigate the hydrodynamics of spray flow, the fluid mechanics and heat transfer of spray impact boiling on microporous surfaces, and the flow dynamics of vapor and liquid in fluid management. *** The research will provide important contribution to the community of thermal fluid sciences. CSCM will make spray cooling viable for computers, data centers, power converters, hybrid/electric vehicles, satellites, spacecraft, aircraft, directed energy weapons, radars, etc. With superior cooling capacity, CSCM will speed up or enable next-generation products and technologies in many high-tech industries in Canada such as microelectronics, power electronics, aviation, and defense. The trained HQP will become highly qualified engineers of liquid cooling and thermal management.