Novel heat transfer fluids for direct immersion phase change cooling of electronic systems

Abstract

We describe the use of computer-aided molecular design (CAMD) and figure of merit (FOM) analysis to identify new heat transfer fluids for direct immersion cooling of electronic systems. Thirty-five new fluids, with thermophysical properties in the range 320K<Tb<370K, k>0.09Wm−1K−1 and Hvap>35kJmol−1, were identified via a CAMD approach. Further analysis of these 35 fluids led to the selection of 1,1,1-trifluoro-3-methylpentane (C6H11F3) for experimental evaluation. C6H11F3 was synthesized from commercially available precursors, and its thermophysical properties were measured to verify its FOM. Next, the pool boiling performance of a mixture of 7wt.% C6H11F3+93wt.% HFE 7200 was determined using a 10mm×10mm grooved Si thermal test chip coated with copper. An improvement of 7% in the critical heat flux (CHF) was obtained, suggesting that C6H11F3 is worth further examination as a candidate for direct immersion phase change cooling applications.