Thermal-fluid assessment of multijet atomization for spray cooling applications

Thermal management is a particularly difficult challenge to the miniaturization of electronic components because it requires high performance cooling systems capable of removing large heat loads at fast rates in order to keep the operating temperature low and controlled. To meet this challenge, the Intermittent Spray Cooling (ISC) concept has been suggested as a promising technology which uses a proper match between the frequency and duration of consecutive injection cycles to control heat transfer. This concept also depends on: the atomization strategy; a homogeneous dispersion of droplets impinging on the hot surface; and the quantitative control of the liquid deposited, avoiding excessive secondary atomization or pre-impingement-evaporation. In this work, the use of liquid atomization by multiple jets impact, also referred as multijet atomization, is the subject of a thermal-fluid assessment using heat transfer correlations previously derived for intermittent sprays. Simultaneous measurements of droplet size and velocity are provided as input for the correlations and the analysis explores the influence of the number of impinging jets on the heat removal pattern and magnitude. Emphasis is put on the promising applicability of multijet atomization for promoting an intelligent use of energy in the thermal management of electronic devices.