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Pressure-dependent pseudo-critical inlet window for supercritical CO2 microchannel cooling: A three-dimensional conjugate thermo-hydraulic analysis
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DOI：10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2026.111213.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
As chip power density continues to increase, high-heat-flux electronic cooling requires compact solutions with low wall temperature and acceptable hydraulic cost. Supercritical carbon dioxide is promising for microchannel cooling because pseudo-critical property variations can markedly alter heat transfer and flow. However, the thermal benefit of near-pseudo-critical inlet conditions remains largely empirical, and the pressure dependence of favorable inlet-state selection in three-dimensional conjugate microchannels has not been adequately clarified. The main novelty of this study is to address that gap by formulating near-pseudo-critical operation as a traceable pressure-dependent inlet-window identification problem and by providing a bounded interpretation of the associated thermal enhancement and thermo-hydraulic response in terms of pseudo-critical variable-property effects. A conjugate numerical model with temperature- and pressure-dependent properties is de0veloped for a microchannel under 100 W cm−2 heating. Inlet-temperature offsets around the pseudo-critical temperature are scanned at 8–10 MPa under a fixed inlet Reynolds number of 2500, and a traceable pseudo-critical inlet window is identified using refined offset cases, mean wall superheat, wall-temperature checks, and pseudo-critical evolution. The identified inlet windows are 3–0.5 K below the pseudo-critical temperature at 8 MPa, 7–5.5 K below the pseudo-critical temperature at 9 MPa, and 11.5–10 K below the pseudo-critical temperature at 10 MPa. Representative crossing cases within these windows reduce mean wall superheat to 2.82, 3.35, and 3.91 K and yield peak bulk heat-transfer coefficients of 4.26 × 105, 3.39 × 105, and 3.03 × 105 W m−2·K−1, respectively. The results show that favorable inlet selection can sustain pseudo-critical proximity and strengthen heat transfer, but thermally favorable cases do not necessarily minimize hydraulic cost under the operating basis. The proposed framework provides a useful basis for pressure-dependent inlet design in supercritical carbon dioxide microchannel cooling.
Keywords:
Supercritical CO2
Microchannel cooling
Pseudo-critical inlet window
Conjugate heat transfer
Thermo-hydraulic response
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