Spray cooling heat transfer: The state of the art

Spray cooling is a technology of increasing interest for electronic cooling and other high heat flux applications, and is characterized by high heat transfer, uniformity of heat removal, small fluid inventory, low droplet impact velocity, and no temperature overshoot. The mechanisms by which heat is removed during spray cooling are poorly understood, however, due to its dependence on many parameters that are not easily varied independently, and predictive capabilities are quite limited. This paper provides an introduction to spray cooling for electronic cooling applications, reviews some proposed spray cooling heat transfer mechanisms, and summarizes the data regarding the effects of non-condensable gas, surface enhancement, spray inclination, and gravity. Some models of spray cooling are also presented.