Spray cooling applications for alternative energy vehicles

The number of electric and alternative fuel source vehicles has dramatically expanded in the last decade due to the proliferation of high energy-dense batteries and the lowering costs of hydrogen fuel vehicles. However, current generation heat exchangers take up more space in alternative fuel source vehicles than in traditional combustion vehicles due to the lower allowable temperatures of the battery or fuel source than the temperatures in a combustion engine. Large heat exchangers create a packaging problem for engineers, driving up the costs and reduce range due to the induced drag. Here we examine utilizing water to spray onto the heat exchangers to increase performance, allowing a decrease in surface area required for heat exchangers in alternative fuel source vehicles. The scalable and optimized super hydrophilic heat exchangers developed here at UIUC have the ability to increase the spray cooling system efficiency and decrease material usage and manufacturing costs.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2021

Author dc:creator

• Popovic, George

Contributors dc:contributor

• Miljkovic, Nenad

• spray-cooling
• heat exchangers
• superhydrophilic
• scalable coatings.

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2021 George Popovic

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/110406

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/110406