Power and Thermal Technologies for Air and Space-Scientific Research Program. Delivery Order 0017: Study of Microchip Power Module Materials Using Mini-Channel Heat Exchanger

摘要

An apparatus to simulate the cooling of a silicon carbide (SiC) metal oxide semiconductor field excited transistor (MOSFET) using a mini- channel heat exchanger with a single phase (liquid) fluid was constructed. The chip was simulated with a sample of SiC that is heated on one surface and cooled on the opposing surface using a mini-channel heat exchanger. One goal of this work was to demonstrate that the apparatus has the capability to remove a heat flux of 100 W/cm2 from the surrogate chip while maintaining its temperature below 200 degrees C. A second goal was to characterize the thermal and flow behavior of the mini-channel heat exchanger for different flow rates and heat fluxes by experiments and numerical simulation using computational fluid dynamics. The maximum heat flux removed by the mini-channel heat exchanger was 110 to 117 W/cm2 with a maximum stem temperature of 112 degrees C at the interface. The NuD values determined here were in the range of 9 to 23, which agree reasonably well existing with convective heat transfer correlations. For flows up to a ReD of 3600, there was good agreement with the theoretical pressure loss. Lastly, computational fluid dynamics simulations provided insight into the effect of the heated length on NuD estimates and flow and convective heat transfer behavior.