Experimental Investigation on Flow and Thermal Characteristics of a Micro Phase-Change Cooling System With a Microgroove Evaporator

In this paper, a natural convection micro cooling system with a capillary microgroove evaporator is proposed. An experimental study on the characteristics of thermal resistance, pressure drop and heat transfer of the cooling system was carried out. Experimental results indicate that the liquid fill ratio has a significant influence on thermal resistance and heat transfer in the cooling system. Increasing system’s cooling capacity at higher input power depends on decreasing the thermal resistance between the outer surfaces of the condenser and ambient environment. Compared with a flat miniature heat pipe (FMHP) and a current fan-cooled radiator for CPU chip of Pentium IV, the present micro cooling system has a stronger heat dissipation capacity. Its best cooling performance at a surface temperature of heat source below 373K reaches 1.68×10⁶W/m² and the maximum heat transportation capacity is 131.8W. The novel kind of cooling system is suitable for remote cooling of those electronic parts with micro size, high power and thermal sensitivity.