A novel thermal management approach is explored, which uses supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) as a working fluid to manage extreme heat fluxes in electronics cooling applications. In the pseudocritical region, sCO2 has extremely high volumetric thermal capacity, which can enable operation with low pumping requirements, and without the potential for two-phase critical heat flux (CHF) and flow instabilities. A model of a representative microchannel heat sink is evaluated with single-phase liquid water and FC-72, two-phase boiling R-134a, and sCO2. For a fixed pumping power, sCO2 is found to yield lower heat-sink wall temperatures than liquid coolants. Practical engineering challenges for supercritical thermal management systems are discussed, including the limits of predictive heat transfer models, narrow operating temperature ranges, high working pressures, and pump design criteria. Based on these findings, sCO2 is a promising candidate working fluid for cooling high heat flux electronics, but additional thermal transport research and engineering are needed before practical systems can be realized.
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December 2016
This article was originally published in
Journal of Heat Transfer
Technical Briefs
High-Flux Thermal Management With Supercritical Fluids
Brian M. Fronk,
Brian M. Fronk
Mem. ASME
School of Mechanical,
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering,
Oregon State University,
204 Rogers Hall,
Corvallis, OR 97331
e-mail: Brian.Fronk@oregonstate.edu
School of Mechanical,
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering,
Oregon State University,
204 Rogers Hall,
Corvallis, OR 97331
e-mail: Brian.Fronk@oregonstate.edu
Search for other works by this author on:
Alexander S. Rattner
Alexander S. Rattner
Mem. ASME
Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering,
Pennsylvania State University,
236A Reber Building,
University Park, PA 16802
e-mail: Alex.Rattner@psu.edu
Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering,
Pennsylvania State University,
236A Reber Building,
University Park, PA 16802
e-mail: Alex.Rattner@psu.edu
Search for other works by this author on:
Brian M. Fronk
Mem. ASME
School of Mechanical,
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering,
Oregon State University,
204 Rogers Hall,
Corvallis, OR 97331
e-mail: Brian.Fronk@oregonstate.edu
School of Mechanical,
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering,
Oregon State University,
204 Rogers Hall,
Corvallis, OR 97331
e-mail: Brian.Fronk@oregonstate.edu
Alexander S. Rattner
Mem. ASME
Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering,
Pennsylvania State University,
236A Reber Building,
University Park, PA 16802
e-mail: Alex.Rattner@psu.edu
Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering,
Pennsylvania State University,
236A Reber Building,
University Park, PA 16802
e-mail: Alex.Rattner@psu.edu
1Corresponding author.
Contributed by the Heat Transfer Division of ASME for publication in the JOURNAL OF HEAT TRANSFER. Manuscript received September 17, 2015; final manuscript received June 24, 2016; published online August 2, 2016. Assoc. Editor: Ali Khounsary.
J. Heat Transfer. Dec 2016, 138(12): 124501 (4 pages)
Published Online: August 2, 2016
Article history
Received:
September 17, 2015
Revised:
June 24, 2016
Citation
Fronk, B. M., and Rattner, A. S. (August 2, 2016). "High-Flux Thermal Management With Supercritical Fluids." ASME. J. Heat Transfer. December 2016; 138(12): 124501. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4034053
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