Enhanced nucleate boiling in microchannels

Author

Lian Zhang ; Wang, E.N. ; Jae-Mo Koo ; Linan Jiang ; Goodson, K.E. ; Santiago, J.G. ; Kenny, T.W.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Stanford Univ., CA, USA

fYear

2002

fDate

24-24 Jan. 2002

Firstpage

89

Lastpage

92

Abstract

This paper studies the nucleate boiling conditions and mechanisms in plasma etched silicon microchannels below 150 /spl mu/m hydraulic diameter. Boiling regimes and the wall superheat in microchannels with various DI water surface tensions and wall surface roughness are discussed. The experiments show that wall superheat in microchannels is primarily due to the lack of active nucleation sites rather than limited channel space or a high liquid surface tension. By creating small cavities in the channel walls, superheat can be eliminated from as small as 28 /spl mu/m hydraulic diameter silicon channels.

Keywords

boiling; channel flow; cooling; elemental semiconductors; heat exchangers; microfluidics; nucleation; silicon; sputter etching; surface tension; surface topography; two-phase flow; 28 to 150 micron; DI water surface tension; Si; active nucleation sites; boiling regimes; channel wall cavities; gas-trapping cavities; high power IC cooling; hydraulic diameter; nucleate boiling conditions; plasma etched Si microchannels; superheat elimination; two-phase microchannel heat exchanger; wall superheat; wall surface roughness; Embryo; Etching; Microchannel; Plasma applications; Plasma measurements; Plasma temperature; Rough surfaces; Silicon; Surface roughness; Surface tension;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2002. The Fifteenth IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Las Vegas, NV, USA

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7185-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2002.984097

Filename

984097