Thermosyphon Cooling of Electronics with Nanoporous Structured

Mini Channel Evaporators

Justin NingWei Chiu, Rahmatollah Khodabandeh, Richard Furberg

Department of Energy Technology, Division of Applied Thermodynamics and Refrigeration, Royal Institute of Technology, Brinellva¨gen 60,

Stockholm 10044, Sweden

Abstract
The issue of dissipating ever growing heat fluxes generated by electronic components has gained people’s attention. Today, the
increase of heat fluxes reaches a level where air cooling is no longer sufficient, and requires new methods of cooling. One promising

cooling system is a closed loop two-phase thermosyphon. Thermosyphon cooling is a passive system, with the ability to dissipate

large heat fluxe with small temperature difference. The knowledge of how to achieve small temperature differences between

electronic component and cooling system has been the major concern in designing the system.

Attention has been given to enhanced boiling surfaces in order to decrease the temperature difference so as to increase heat
transfer coefficient. Structured surfaces may provide both surface enlargement and artificial nucleation sites, thus ameliorate the heat

transfer coefficient. The thermal performance of thermosyphon can be improved with use of enhanced surfaces in the evaporator. The

goal of the present work is to analyze the influence, if there is any, on heat transfer coefficient (HTC) of enhanced surface structures

coated on mini channel heat exchanger working in a closed loop thermosyphon system. The work conducted includes three novel

technology aspects: boiling in minichannels, nanostructure enhancement, and closed loop thermosyphon cooling.
Experimental tests are carried out with three types of surface enhanced mini channel evaporators: smooth surface, threaded

structure and nanoporous coating. All evaporators are single channel based; the 30 mm long half circular shaped channels measure

3mm in diameter. The apparent surface area of channels is 1.41cm². Tests are done at different reduced pressures: 0.12, 0.13, and 0.14.

Different heat fluxes ranging from 1W/cm² to 60W/cm² (10kW/m² to 600KW/m²) are applied to the system. During experimental
work, flow regimes are being filmed with high speed camera. Refrigerant R134a is tested for all three structures. Further experiments

are also being carried out to study the influence of inputting heat flux, working pressure, and hysteresis effects as well as flow

regimes on the performance of the thermosyphon.

Key Words: Thermosyphon, Enhanced Boiling, Mini Channel, High Speed Camera Filming, Flow Pattern, Heat Transfer Coefficient, Nano Structure,

Threaded Surface.

Refroidissement par Thermosiphon des Composants Electroniques

avec Evaporateurs à Mini Canal en Structure Nano Poreuse

Mots clés : Thermosiphon, Ebullition, Mini Canal, Caméra à Haute Vitesse, Régime d’Ecoulement, Coefficient de Transfert de Chaleur, Nano

Structure, Surface Filetée