The objective of this GOALI grant is to develop a robust, cost-effective and highly productive powder rolling/embossing process to produce porous heat/mass transfer surfaces with integrated micro-scale features, controlled porosity and thin substrate layer using copper powders and thin sheet material.
The trend of increasing integrated, compact and miniaturized devices lead to high heat loads, and compel interdisciplinary research efforts to develop advanced heat exchangers that are compact, small, efficient and inexpensive. Recent studies focused on two phase heat transfer where phase transformation from liquid to vapor phase (pool-boiling) significantly increases the level of thermal energy transfer. It was also found that porous surfaces with micro-scale modulated features can provide pool-boiling improvements up to 180-300%.
This grant will support a study to develop a novel manufacturing process to produce such surfaces continuously and address the following fundamental issues: (1) Understanding of the deformation mechanics involved in the forming of particulate materials into micro-scale features with controlled porosity under complex mechanical and thermal loading conditions, (2) Understanding of the bonding between powders and thin solid substrate that will be simultaneously generated.
Broader Impacts of this innovation will be realized by the society when highly compact, integrated and efficient advanced heat/mass transfer products (heat exchangers, radiators, e-cooling units, micro-reactors, fuel reformers) are made available to customers at affordable cost. This would lead to energy and space savings during the entire life cycle of the heat exchangers. PIs plan to develop two short course modules on applications of porous surfaces and fabrication of micro-scale porous features, and integrate them into the existing heat transfer, design and manufacturing related courses. PIs also plan to develop a workshop among industry, academia and government agencies to discuss potential applications and improvements of this technology.
