Systems and methods for spray cooling
| DWPI Title: Device for use in e.g. cooling of heated surface of component, has motive fluid nozzle to direct vapor into converging inlet nozzle, and diverging outlet diffuser to receive fluid mixture from converging inlet nozzle |
| Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to systems, devices and methods for cooling a surface with a plurality of ejectors. The fluid provided to the micro-ejectors includes vapor formed at the surface. The vapor provides the driving force for driving fluid through the micro-ejectors. |
| Use: Device for use in e.g. cooling of heated surface of a component. Uses include but are not limited to the cooling of high powered electronic component, first wall of fusion reactor, concentrated solar power (CSP) receiver, nuclear fuel rod, leading edges of hypersonic vehicle flight surface, integrated circuit (IC), solid-state switching electronic device, and a laser diode. |
| Advantage: The device is self-powered, driven at start-up by vaporization of coolant adjacent to the heated plate, and automatically adjusts the flow rate of fluid and spray velocity with increased heat input at the plate without the complexity of sensing and control equipment. The simplified routing of fluids reduces inventory, thermal mass, and the size of cooling system and allows for fast start-up and load following performance limited only by the connection with an ultimate heat sink. The cooling system is easily scaled to the given heat load by arranging multiple independent units in parallel. This parallelism, the lack of any maintenance-heavy rotating equipment, and the hermetic sealing possible with this system provide incredible reliability and robustness. The wicking material is utilized to avoid mixing of liquid and vapor phases and eliminate the influence of gravity. The lowering of pressure in the liquid plenum region is assisted by the wicking material to allow start-up of the motive nozzle jets. |
| Novelty: The device has an ejector (12) provided with a liquid inlet (20) for the supply of liquid to a converging inlet nozzle (32), and a vapor inlet (22) for the supply of vapor to a motive fluid nozzle (28). The vapor is directed by the motive fluid nozzle into the converging inlet nozzle in order to form a fluid mixture. A diverging outlet diffuser (34) is provided to receive the fluid mixture and form a fluid jet (18) that is directed towards a heated surface (16) of a component (14). A fluid heating zone is provided adjacent to and in thermal communication with the component. A liquid return path (36) is provided in between the fluid heating zone and the liquid inlet. A vapor return path (38) is provided in between the fluid heating zone and the vapor inlet. |
| Filed: 10/12/2016 |
| Application Number: US15291698A |
| Tech ID: SD 13346.1 |
| This invention was made with Government support under Contract No. DE-NA0003525 awarded by the United States Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration. The Government has certain rights in the invention. |
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