REsolving ambiguities in Flow boiling within micro-passages: Integrated modeliNg and Experiments

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Electronic products are progressively smaller and more powerful, resulting to an exponential increase in the generated residual heat. Their effective and environmental-friendly cooling is therefore, of upmost importance for many applications such as Data Centres, Fuel Cells, Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors, Lithium-Ion Batteries and Photovoltaic Cells, with a market value of several billions of dollars worldwide. Flow Boiling within micro-passages has been proven as one of the most efficient cooling strategies for such High-Power Density Electronics. However, such solutions, are not yet commercially available. This is due to a lack of a deep understanding of the underpinned flow and transport processes and unresolved ambiguities in micro-scales and hence, of reliable and easy-to-use thermal design tools for small-scale components. REFINE aims to give light at such crucial ambiguities, utilising a synergic combination of novel Volume Of Fluid (VOF) based numerical simulations and tailored high-resolution experimental diagnostics. Dr Andredaki will develop a novel cutting-edge simulation tool starting from an already enhanced VOF solver that she has been developing in the last years. This will be validated against parallel advanced experimental measurements on flow boiling, that she will perform using single and multiple parallel micro-channel heat sinks. The final optimised and validated numerical solver will then be applied for a wide series of parametric simulations that in combination with additional laboratory measurements will form a unique database that will lead to the development of novel, physics-based design correlations for flow boiling micro-channel heat sinks. The word-leading expertise of Prof. Moreira, who will supervise this project, on the experimental techniques for microscale boiling, guarantees the highest level of knowledge transfer, enabling Dr Andredaki to further develop her skills and enhance her future career opportunities in academia.