Employing nanofluids is an innovative way to enhance heat transfer in cooling system of internal combustion engine. the reasons for the significantly enhanced heat transfer properties of nanofluids are various. On one hand, the markedly increased thermal conductivity is the most apparent reason; on the other hand, the changed rheology properties of base fluid due to the disordered movements of countless nanoparticles is even more important. Because the size scale of nanoparticles is too small, in some cases of computational simulations nanofluids is simplified as single-phase fluids. However, the influence of nanoparticles for flow behaviors of base fluids distinctly should not be ignored. By means of molecular dynamics method, a nano-scale simulation on the rheology of nanofluids could be conducted, therefore the movements of nanoparticles could be directly observed, which is conducive to reveal the influence of movements of nanoparticles for rheology of nanofluids. The present work is intended to perform a molecular dynamic simulation on the rheology of water based nanofluids. By applying temperature difference, the velocity and temperature distribution of fluid zone are calculated to evaluate heat transfer through nanofluids. Moreover, the influence of temperature for the movements of nanoparticle is discussed.

Two-phase boiling in advanced microchannel heat sinks offers an efficient and attractive solution for heat dissipation of high-heat-flux devices. In this study, a type of reentrant copper microchannels was developed for heat sink cooling systems. It consisted of 14 parallel Ω-shaped reentrant copper microchannels with a hydraulic diameter of 781μm. Two-phase pressure drop characteristics were comprehensively accessed via flow boiling tests. Both deionized water and ethanol tests were conducted at inlet subcooling of 10°C and 40°C, mass fluxes of 125–300kg/m 2 ·s, and a wide range of heat fluxes and vapor qualities. The effects of heat flux, mass flux, inlet subcoolings and coolants on the two-phase pressure drop were systematically explored. The results show that the two-phase pressure drop of reentrant copper microchannels generally increased with increasing heat fluxes and vapor qualities. The role of mass flux and inlet temperatures was dependent on the test coolant. The water tests presented smaller pressure drop than the ethanol ones. These results provide critical experimental information for the development of microchannel heat sink cooling systems, and are of considerable practical relevance.

As the rapid growing of the semiconductor logic gate number and operation speed, the heat dissipated from electronic devices increases drastically. Moreover, most of the heat flux can reach about 100 W/cm 2 , therefore efficient removal of the heat from the electronic devices is essential to ensure the reliable operation of the electronic devices. The traditional direct cooling system, such as air cooling, liquid cooling, would not be able to transfer the high heat flux owing to their heat transfer limits, so advanced cooling solutions are necessary. The flat heat pipes have some advantages, such as small scale, strong heat transfer capacity, low weight penalty and low environmental requirements, therefore, in recent years, researchers have shown great interest for the flat heat pipe. But most of them played the important on the structure design of the flat heat pipes, and few of them focused on the study of the effect of the working fluid on the heat transfer performance. In this paper, a flat heat pipe with rectangular channel is designed and manufactured, and an experimental set up was built to study working fluid on the effects of the flat heat Pipe thermal performance. The flat heat pipe is heated via a 35mmx20mm rectangular electrical resistance (the evaporator side), and the other side (the condenser side) is cooled by convection of a heat sink. In the experimental work, three types of working fluid are used in the heat pipe: (A) deionized water, (B) deionized water-based Fe3O4 nano fluid (1, 1.5wt%). A comparison is performed for the thermal performance of different size flat heat pipe. Finally, the experimental results showed that nano fluid could improve the thermal performance of the FHP. With the same charge volume, the heat transfer coefficient of the FHPs filled with nano fluid were higher than that of DI water. There was an optimal mass concentration which was estimated to be 1.5 wt% to achieve the maximum heat transfer enhancement.

We report an electrowetting-controlled cooling system with site-specific treatments on the heat source (evaporator or hot spot) surfaces. Electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) has great potential in thermal management because EWOD-driven droplet transport has unique characteristics of prompt response, low power consumption and programmable paths without the need for any mechanical moving parts. Prompt and fast droplet transport is necessary for adaptive and active cooling of high heat flux targets. Using a multi-channel DC/AC control system, we carried out sequenced activation of AC voltages on coplanar electrodes and transmitted a droplet to the spot target along a programmable path. With high positioning accuracy at the chip level, we have successfully transmitted a water droplet of 15 μL at speeds as high as ∼10 cm/s. We further improved electrowetting cooling performance by coating a fine copper screen on the cooling targets. The capillarity associated with the copper screen facilitates the delivered droplets automatically spreading and clinging to the target surfaces. As a result, heat transfer is in the more efficient form of filmwise evaporation at the evaporator sites. To maintain a thin film with proper thickness on the hot spots, we implemented EWOD-assisted droplet splitting and merging to precisely control the droplet volume to avoid fluid flooding (accumulation) on the hot spot surfaces. Our investigation indicates that thin-film evaporation is a high-efficiency heat transfer mechanism on a hydrophilized hot spot surface. Based on EWOD technique with surface treatments, the superheat on a hot spot of 4mm × 4mm was maintained well below 30°C even when the heat flux reached as high as 80W/cm 2 . The closed loop of this novel thermal management system can potentially function as a wickless vapor chamber or heat pipe with enhanced heat dissipation capabilities.

In this paper the effect of nanoparticle concentration and temperature on the thermal conductivity of Yttria-Ethylene glycol nanofluid has been investigated. In addition, the effect of aging on the viscosity and the thermal conductivity of these nanofluids also have been studied. The nanofluids were prepared by two-step method, and particle size distributions were characterized using acoustic spectroscopy. It was found that the thermal conductivity of Yttria nanofluids increases beyond the classical Hamilton-Crosser model. Moreover, the enhancement in the thermal conductivity of this nanofluid showed high temperature dependence behavior. For instance at 3.0% by volume particles loading, the thermal conductivity enhancement increased from 16.6% at 26 °C to 27.0% at 59 °C, making these nanofluids attractive and effective for cooling systems that operates at high temperatures. Finally, time dependent viscosity and thermal conductivity measurements showed stable behavior for 16 days of study demonstrating the good stability of these nanofluids.

To meet the increasing demand of efficient cooling performance in small scale, this paper presents a digital microfluidics (DMF) microscale liquid cooling system which works on the principle of electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD). In EWOD DMF, fluids are handled drop-wise by external electric field. When the dispensed liquid droplet arrives at the hotspot by EWOD DMF operation, it picks up heat and removes heat when it leaves. This process can be repeated for a series of droplets by using a completely automated LabVIEW controlled system connected to the PCB package. With the help of indium tin oxide (ITO) thin film resistance temperature detectors (RTD) and pre-calibrated temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) data, the temperatures of the hotspot before and after the residence of liquid droplet (i.e., cooling) can be recorded for different frequencies (dwelling time period of droplet on the hotspot) of the drop motion and varying heater power. Future work will involve RTD resistance data collection to plot the heat flux and the temperature difference (before and after cooling) for different frequencies of drop motion. Although the primary focus is to study single phase cooling, the DI water drop will experience considerable evaporation resulting in higher cooling performance. The single phase cooling studies will help in establishing a robust platform for future two-phase cooling analysis in which evaporation effects will be considered.

The paper describes results from an experimental study of the effect of an electric field on nucleate boiling and the critical heat flux (CHF) in pool boiling at atmospheric pressure with polished smooth boiling surface. A micro scaled electrode with slits for bubbles to come out was designed in order to create non uniform high electric field strength and to produce electrohydrodynamics (EHD) convection with the application of dc voltage. The application of high electric field strongly enhanced the heat flux and the heat transfer coefficient. From observations of the behavior of bubbles over the electrode and the boiling surface condition, the instability between the liquid and the vapor increased the heat flux, the heat transfer coefficient and the CHF.

Accurate prediction of critical heat flux (CHF) in microchannels and small diameter tubes is of great interest in estimating the safe operational limits of cooling systems employing flow boiling. Scale analysis is applied to identify the relevant forces leading to the CHF condition. Using these forces, a local parameter model is developed to predict the flow boiling CHF. The theoretical model is an extension of an earlier pool boiling CHF model incorporating a force balance among the evaporation momentum, surface tension, inertia, and viscous forces. Weber number, capillary number, and a new non-dimensional group K 2 , representing the ratio of evaporation momentum to surface tension forces, emerged as main groups in quantifying the narrow channel effects on CHF. The constants in the model were calculated from the available experimental data. The mean error with ten data sets is 19.7 percent, with 76 percent data falling within ±30% error band, and 93 percent within ±50% error band. Evaluating individualized set of constants for each data set resulted in mean errors of less than 10 percent for all data sets. The success of the model indicates that flow boiling CHF can be modeled as a local phenomenon and the scale analysis is able to reveal important information regarding fundamental mechanisms leading to the CHF condition. The final equations resulting from this model are given by Eqs. (18–22) along with the transition criteria given by Eq. (28).

Since Moore’s prediction in 1965, transistor count density on computer chips has grown exponentially and roadmaps for future industry growth still project exponential development for the next decade. With higher transistor densities, greater heat flux dissipation is required in order for performance to keep par with chip development. However, it is theorized that current cooling systems would not be able to cope with heat fluxes of future computer chips. Microchip heat management systems can be either active or passive. Active systems require an external driving component that increases the system’s complexity and ultimately power consumption. Heat pipes are passive fluidic systems, which are more robust and easier to implement than their active counterparts. Recirculation of the coolant in a heat pipe is done passively by means of a wicking structure that induces capillary flow from the condenser to the evaporator. However, there are many limiting factors associated with heat pipes based on the wick dimensions, fluid selection and orientation. At CPU chip operating temperatures the most significant limitation is the capillary limit. This limitation must be addressed in order to meet future computer chip heat dissipation requirements. In order to find an optimal geometry that would maximize the capillary flow, a theoretical model was developed using a rectangular pillar array. Surface tension forces induce a capillary flow that is opposed by viscous stresses from the pillars. Due to the regular and well-defined geometry of the pillar array, an ab initio approach can be used to model this flow, rather than resorting to Darcy’s flow and empirical permeability correlations. Predicted values of maximum flow rate were obtained from this theoretical model. This model and its results are directly applicable to carbon nanotube (CNT) and nanowire (NW) based wick structures. To validate the merit of nanostructure wicks for use in heat pipes, experimental data was collected to show the capillary limits of various nanowicks. The capillary limit of a wick was associated with the heat flux at which the wick cannot sustain the fluid flow necessary for heat removal and burnout occurs. When a baseline wick was experimentally compared to a nanowick, it was found that due to the difference in thickness of the wicks, the baseline wick provided higher flow rates. However, when the data were normalized to produce velocity values, the nanowick was found to have a higher velocity than the baseline wicks.