The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is leading a national effort to develop next-generation cooling technologies for hybrid vehicle electronics, as part of the Advanced Power Electronics and Electrical Machines program area in the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Vehicle Technologies Program. The overarching goal is to reduce the size, weight, and cost of power electronic modules that convert direct current from the batteries to alternating current for the motor, and vice versa. Aggressive thermal management techniques help in achieving the goals of increased power density and reduced weight and volume, while keeping the chip temperatures within acceptable limits. The viability of aggressive cooling schemes such as spray and jet impingement in conjunction with enhanced surfaces is being explored as part of the program. In this work, we present results from a series of experiments with pool and spray boiling on enhanced surfaces, such as a microporous layer of copper and copper nanowires, using HFE-7100 as the working fluid. Spray impingement on the microporous coated surface showed an enhancement of 100%−300% in the heat transfer coefficient at a given wall superheat with respect to spray impingement on a plain surface under similar operating conditions. The critical heat flux also increased by 7%−20%, depending on the flow rates. Heat transfer coefficients obtained on the nanowire-grown surface are considerably better than those obtained on the plain surface, although the enhancement is lower than those obtained on the microporous surface. The critical heat flux is also considerably lower for the nanowire surface than for the plain surface.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.