Numerical Analysis of Active Flow Boiling Regime Management Using a Vapor-Compression Cycle Applied to Electronic Processor Cooling

As computing power continues to grow at a rapid rate, the thermal load generated from electronic devices follows. Furthermore, reduced size requirements for electronic devices have driven engineers to produce this increased computing power in smaller packaging than ever before. The combination of these two trends results in high heat flux processors that require innovative cooling techniques. Industry and academia alike have anticipated this trend and have developed several general families of solutions to cooling high-heat flux processors. This work proposes the use of flow boiling in a vapor compression cycle and a spreader to distribute the heat from a high-heat flux source to the evaporator. Specifically, the balance between cycle performance and achievable heat flux is assessed, and operating conditions where the ability of the cycle to control evaporator heat flux and simultaneously achieve a high cycle efficiency are identified. A numerical flow boiling correlation is applied and a microchannel evaporator design model is proposed. Geometric parameters and performance limitations of this technique are analyzed and both quantitative and qualitative results along with future work are presented