An Experimental Study of Steady State High Heat Flux Removal Using Spray Cooling
Abstract
Spray cooling is a promising means of dissipating large steady state heat fluxes in high density power and electronic systems, such as thermophotovoltaic systems. The present study reports on the effectiveness of spray cooling in removing heat fluxes as high as 220 W/cm2. An experiment was designed to determine how the parameters of spray volumetric flow rate and droplet size influence the heat removal capacity of such a system. A series of commercially available nozzles were used to generate full cone water spray patterns encompassing a range of volumetric flow rates (3.79 to 42.32 L/h) and droplet Sauter mean diameters (17.4 to 35.5 micrometers). The non-flooded regime of spray cooling was studied, in which liquid spreading on the heater surface following droplet impact is the key phenomenon that determines the heat transfer rate. The experimental data established a direct proportionality of the heat flux with spray flow rate, and an inverse dependence on the droplet diameter. A correlation of the data was developed to predict heat flux as a function of the studied parameters over the range of values tested in this experiment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA429841
Entities
People
- James B. Fillius
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School