A compact nanostructure integrated pool boiler for microscale cooling applications

An efficient cooling system consisting of a plate, on which copper nanorods (nanorods of size ~100nm) are integrated to copper thin film deposited on Silicon substrate, a heater, the Aluminum base, and a pool was developed. This high efficiency heat transfer equipment has a base of dimensions 6cmx6cm. The base is a specially designed and machined Aluminum block to enhance heat transfer with minimum loss from the heater placed beneath the aluminum block, which transfers heat flux to the nanorod integrated plate specimen placed on top of it. A container made of Plexiglas is closely fitted on top of the Aluminum block to create the desired pool for the pool boiling experiments on the nanostructured plate (made of Silicon). The heat generated by the film miniature heater is delivered to the nanostructured plate of size 1.7cmx1.5cm through the base. Heat is transferred with high efficiency to the liquid within the pool above the base through the plate by boiling heat transfer. Near boiling temperature of the fluid, vapor bubbles started to form with the existence of wall superheat. Phase change took place near the nanostructured plate, where the bubbles emerged from. Bubble formation and bubble motion inside the pool created an effective heat transfer from the plate surface to the pool. Nucleate boiling took place on the surface of the nanostructured plate helping the heat removal from the system to the liquid above. The heat transfer from nanostructured plate is analyzed and studied using the experimental setup. The temperatures were recorded from the readings of thermocouples, which were successfully integrated to the system. The surface temperature at boiling inception was 102.1°C without the nanostructured plate while the surface temperature was successfully decreased to near 100°C with the existence of the nanostructured plate. In this study, it was proved that this device could have the potential to be an extremely useful device for small and excessive heat generating devices such as MEMS or Micro-processors. This device does not require any external energy to assist heat removal which is a great advantage compared to its counterparts.