Two-phase flow boiling in microchannels for cooling of microelectronics

Abstract

Paper presented at the 8th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Mauritius, 11-13 July, 2011.

Recent progress in the study of two-phase flow boiling in single microchannels and multi-microchannels and the challenges posed by microelectronics cooling are reviewed. Experimental investigations have shown that uniform and transient heat fluxes and local hot-spots can be well handled by micro-evaporators. Furthermore, advances in the prediction of two-phase pressure drops and flow pattern transitions in microchannels are presented. The development of mechanistic models specific to the important flow regimes (elongated bubble flow and annular flow) opens the possibility for integrated flow pattern-based prediction methods. Presently two such methods are combined together to capture the transition between these two regimes and thus better predict the trends in the local flow boiling heat transfer process.