Flow boiling in microchannels: Fundamentals and applications

TLDR

High heat fluxes in modern electronics and power devices (up to 50 MW/m²) demand efficient cooling, and flow boiling in microchannels offers very high heat transfer rates, yet fundamental issues still impede commercial adoption. The paper aims to review potential applications of microchannel flow boiling and identify the thermal‑management challenges specific to each use case. The authors compare integrated microchannel cooling systems, present experimental studies on single‑tube and rectangular multichannel flow boiling, and analyze key issues such as channel definition, flow patterns, instabilities, surface effects, and critical heat‑flux prediction. They find that miniature liquid‑pump cooling systems outperform miniature vapor‑compression refrigeration, and they develop new correlations for flow‑pattern transitions and heat‑transfer coefficients while outlining areas requiring further research.

Abstract

The rapid advances in performance and miniaturization of electronics and high power devices resulted in huge heat flux values that need to be dissipated effectively. The average heat flux in computer chips is expected to reach 2–4.5 MW/m2 with local hot spots 12–45 MW/m2 while in IGBT modules, the heat flux at the chip level can reach 6.5–50 MW/m2. Flow boiling in microchannels is one of the most promising cooling methods for these and similar devices due to the capability of achieving very high heat transfer rates with small variations in the surface temperature. However, several fundamental issues are still not understood and this hinders the transition from laboratory research to commercial applications. The present paper starts with a discussion of the possible applications of flow boiling in microchannels in order to highlight the challenges in the thermal management for each application. In this part, the different integrated systems using microchannels were also compared. The comparison demonstrated that miniature cooling systems with a liquid pump were found to be more efficient than miniature vapour compression refrigeration systems. The paper then presents experimental research on flow boiling in single tubes and rectangular multichannels to discuss the following fundamental issues: (1) the definition of microchannel, (2) flow patterns and heat transfer mechanisms, (3) flow instability and reversal and their effect on heat transfer rates, (4) effect of channel surface characteristics and (5) prediction of critical heat flux. Areas where more research is needed were clearly mentioned. In addition, correlations for the prediction of the flow pattern transition boundaries and heat transfer coefficients in small to mini/micro diameter tubes were developed recently by the authors and presented in this paper.