CDS&E: Multiscale Data Intensive Simulation and Modeling of Microemulsion Boiling: A New Paradigm for Boiling Enhancement

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

Novel high-power electronics, refrigeration systems and power generation equipment are being developed to revolutionize the technological foundations of industry. Dissipation of excessively high levels of heat generated in these applications is a fundamental bottleneck in their practical use. One potential method to resolve this issue is to use boiling of heat transfer fluids, which takes advantage of high energies associated with converting liquid to vapor and the accompanying liquid agitation. However, the current studies on the search for high performance heat transfer fluids rely mainly on empirical trial and error approaches and are focused on the use of refrigerants. The principal aim of this project is to explore the use of microemulsions as the boiling fluid, and to create a rational design framework for microemulsion boiling using an integrated computational and experimental approach. This project plans to study the causes of the enhancement in microemulsion boiling in order to further improve and deploy microemulsions in practical settings. The project will also encompass significant educational and outreach activities, involve minority students and art-in-science displays featuring microemulsion boiling experiments and simulations. The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive picture of microemulsion boiling and use that information to design new and improved microemulsions for thermal management applications. It is currently not known why microemulsion boiling exhibits great order and regularity in bubble formation and growth and how bubbles grow to a very large size yet remain attached to the surface and still generate high heat fluxes at the surface. The project seeks to fill this knowledge gap by creating a rational design framework for studying microemulsion boiling based on closely coordinated simulation and experimental efforts. The simulation effort is focused on deploying leading edge, high accuracy computational methods (both existing and new methods proposed in this project) on a state-of-the-art open-source, massively parallel, GPU enabled continuum scale simulation framework. Experiments will be used to (i) guide the development of new computational methods and physics models, (ii) validate the numerical solver using matched experimental conditions, (iii) prepare new microemulsions with desirable properties suggested by the numerical simulations and (iv) finally validate the predicted enhancement in heat transfer using the new microemulsions. This integrated computational and experimental approach will (i) elucidate new physical mechanisms in microemulsion boiling, (ii) delineate which thermophysical properties of microemulsions need to be tuned for improved thermal performance, and (iii) engineer new microemulsions in the laboratory with desirable thermophysical properties. This approach is expected to yield unprecedented understanding on microemulsion boiling and impact thermal management of electronics/optoelectronics and industrial heat exchanger and distributed heating systems. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.