Effect of manifold flow configuration on two-phase ultra-high flux cooling

Abstract

A two-phase, one-dimensional model for the pressure drop and flow distribution in a manifold-microchannel system was developed. The model was run with three different manifold configurations and trends were observed. First, the effect of mass flow rate was investigated in single-phase mode, and it was shown that while z-type manifolds provide superior flow distribution to that of c-type manifolds at low mass fluxes, at high mass fluxes c-type manifolds provide a superior flow distribution, due to the alignment of the inlet and outlet pressure gradients. In addition, due to the lack of an outlet pressure gradient, h-type manifolds were found to provide a more uniform flow distribution across the board. Next, the effects of low and high vapor qualities were investigated. In the end, it was shown that in z-type and c-type manifolds, the flow distribution worsens as vapor quality increases, while for h-type manifolds, the flow distribution improves. Accordingly, h-type manifolds are significantly simpler and less computationally expensive to design, requiring only single-phase computational fluid dynamics simulations, while z-type and c-type manifolds require both single-phase and two-phase computational fluid dynamics simulations.