A Microstructure Device for Single Phase Surface Cooling

A microstructure device for cooling of hot surfaces at liquid single phase laminar flow is presented. The initial design as well as the theoretical background is described in detail. It consists of numerous short micro channels acting as overflow structures and providing a relatively large hydraulic diameter, used in parallel between large inlet and outlet channels. The design was chosen to be scalable as well as appropriate for mass production in different materials. The fluid distribution was optimized as well as the dimensions of the overflow structures in terms of heat transfer, both by CFD simulations. Several devices were tested. They provide very high heat flux at reasonably low pressure drop. The temperature difference to achieve, heat flux and pressure drop can be adjusted easily by control of the applied mass flow. The design was tested as liquid-liquid heat exchanger in a simple lab-scale test facility. Moreover, using a copper electrically powered surface heat focus, some devices were tested as surface coolers.