Enhancement of heat transfer with pool and spray impingement boiling on microporous and nanowire surface coatings

The DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is leading a national effort to develop next-generation cooling technologies for hybrid vehicle electronics. The goal is to reduce the size, weight, and cost of power electronic modules that convert direct current from batteries to alternating current for the motor, and vice versa. Aggressive thermal management techniques help to increase power density and reduce weight and volume, while keeping chip temperatures within acceptable limits. The viability of aggressive cooling schemes such as spray and jet impingement in conjunction with enhanced surfaces is being explored. Here, we present results from a series of experiments with pool and spray boiling on enhanced surfaces, such as a microporous layer of copper and copper nanowires, using HFE-7100 as the working fluid. Spray impingement on the microporous coated surface showed an enhancement of 100%-300% in the heat transfer coefficient at a given wall superheat with respect to spray impingement on a plain surface under similar operating conditions. Critical heat flux also increased by 7%-20%, depending on flow rates.