A Very High Heat Flux Microchannel Heat Exchanger and Fluid

A research proposal to develop a very high heat flux heat exchanger to cool semiconductor laser arrays is presented. The proposed design will be based on currently available microchannel heat exchangers. In order to enhance their performance so that they may be used for the proposed application, a phase change material suspension will be used as the heat transfer fluid. Unlike conventional phase change material suspensions which use microencapsulated phase change materials, and emulsion type suspension will be used in this design because of its lower cost, higher stability and longer life, as well as many other advantages. During the Phase I investigations, the heat transfer performance of a microchannel heat exchanger with phase changer material suspensions will be evaluated. In addition, experiments will be done to verify that the system performance is up to the required criteria, viz. 1000W/cm2 at 300K.