With the rapid improvement of computer performance, tremendous heat generation in the chip becomes a major serious concern for thermal management. Meanwhile, CPU chips are becoming smaller and smaller with almost no room for the heat to escape. The total power-dissipation levels now reside on the order of 100 W with a peak power density of 400–500 W/cm2, and are still steadily climbing. As a result, it is extremely hard to attain higher performance and reliability. Because the conventional conduction and forcedair convection techniques are becoming incapable in providing adequate cooling for sophisticated electronic systems, new solutions such as liquid cooling, thermoelectric cooling, heat pipes, vapor chambers, etc. are being studied. Recently, it was realized that using a liquid metal or its alloys with a low melting point as coolant could significantly lower the chip temperature. This new generation heat transfer enhancement method raised many important fundamentals and practical issues to be solved. To accommodate to the coming endeavor in this area, this paper is dedicated to presenting an overall review on chip cooling using liquid metals or their alloys as coolant. Much more attention will be paid to the thermal properties of liquid metals with low melting points or their alloys and their potential applications in the chip cooling. Meanwhile, principles of several typical pumping methods such as mechanical, electromagnetic or peristaltic pumps will be illustrated. Some new advancement in making a liquid metal cooling device will be discussed. The liquid metal cooling is expected to open a new world for computer chip cooling because of its evident merits over traditional coolant.

Liquid metal cooling in thermal management of computer chips

Water is perhaps the most widely adopted working fluid in conventional industrial heat transport engineering. However, it may no longer be the best option today due to the increasing scarcity of water resources. Furthermore, the wide variations in water supply throughout the year and across different geographic regions also makes it harder to easily access. To address this issue, finding new alternatives to replace water-based technologies is imperative. In this paper, the concept of a water-free heat exchanger is proposed and comprehensively analyzed for the first time. The liquid metal with a low melting point is identified as an ideal fluid that can flexibly be used within a wide range of working temperatures. Some liquid metals and their alloys, which have previously received little attention in thermal management areas, are evaluated. With superior thermal conductivity, electromagnetic field drivability, and extremely low power consumption, liquid metal coolants promise many opportunities for revolutionizing modern heat transport processes: serving as heat transport fluid in industries, administrating thermal management in power and energy systems, and innovating enhanced cooling in electronic or optical devices. Furthermore, comparative analyses are conducted to understand the technical barriers encountered by advanced water-based heat transfer strategies and clarify this new frontier in heat-transport study. In addition, the unique merits of liquid metals that could lead to innovative heat exchanger technologies are evaluated comprehensively. A few promising industrial situations, such as heat recovery, chip cooling, thermoelectricity generation, and military applications, where liquid metals could play irreplaceable roles, were outlined. The technical challenges and scientific issues thus raised are summarized. With their evident ability to meet various critical requirements in modern advanced energy and power industries, liquid metal-enabled technologies are expected to usher a new and global era of water-free heat exchangers.

Revolutionizing heat transport enhancement with liquid metals: Proposal of a new industry of water-free heat exchangers

Oxygen control systems and impurity purification in LBE: Learning from DEMETRA project

As the basis of modern industry, the roles materials play are becoming increasingly vital in this day and age. With many superior physical properties over conventional fluids, the low melting point liquid metal material, especially room-temperature liquid metal, is recently found to be uniquely useful in a wide variety of emerging areas from energy, electronics to medical sciences. However, with the coming enormous utilization of such materials, serious issues also arise which urgently need to be addressed. A biggest concern to impede the large scale application of room-temperature liquid metal technologies is that there is currently a strong shortage of the materials and species available to meet the tough requirements such as cost, melting point, electrical and thermal conductivity, etc. Inspired by the Material Genome Initiative as issued in 2011 by the United States of America, a more specific and focused project initiative was proposed in this paper—the liquid metal material genome aimed to discover advanced new functional alloys with low melting point so as to fulfill various increasing needs. The basic schemes and road map for this new research program, which is expected to have a worldwide significance, were outlined. The theoretical strategies and experimental methods in the research and development of liquid metal material genome were introduced. Particularly, the calculation of phase diagram (CALPHAD) approach as a highly effective way for material design was discussed. Further, the first-principles (FP) calculation was suggested to combine with the statistical thermodynamics to calculate the thermodynamic functions so as to enrich the CALPHAD database of liquid metals. When the experimental data are too scarce to perform a regular treatment, the combination of FP calculation, cluster variation method (CVM) or molecular dynamics (MD), and CALPHAD, referred to as the mixed FP-CVMCALPHAD method can be a promising way to solve the problem. Except for the theoretical strategies, several parallel processing experimental methods were also analyzed, which can help improve the efficiency of finding new liquid metal materials and reducing the cost. The liquid metal material genome proposal as initiated in this paper will accelerate the process of finding and utilization of new functional materials.

Liquid metal material genome: Initiation of a new research track towards discovery of advanced energy materials

Abstract This article reports the fabrication and wetting characteristics of 3-dimensional nanostructured fractal surfaces (3DNFS). Three distinct 3DNFS surfaces, namely cubic, Romanesco broccoli, and sphereflake were fabricated using two-photon direct laser writing. Contact angle measurements were performed on the multiscale fractal surfaces to characterize their wetting properties. Average contact angles ranged from 66.8° for the smooth control surface to 0° for one of the fractal surfaces. The change in wetting behavior was attributed to modification of the interfacial surface properties due to the inclusion of 3-dimensional hierarchical fractal nanostructures. However, this behavior does not exactly obey existing surface wetting models in the literature. Potential applications for these types of surfaces in physical and biological sciences are also discussed.

On The Wetting States of Low Melting Point Metal Galinstan and Wetting Characteristics of 3-Dimensional Nanostructured Fractal Surfaces

Such heavy coolants as lead and a eutectic alloy of lead with bismuth while having favorable thermophysical and technological properties are comparatively corrosive for structure materials and can be contaminated by solid impurities during the operation of the system.

Heavy Liquid Metal Coolant – Lead–Bismuth and Lead – Technology

A special feature of the BREST-OD-300 reactor that is now being designed is that it employs a container-type heat-conducting fuel element with mixed uranium–plutonium mononitride fuel, a lead sublayer, and an expansion volume at the top to collect gaseous products. The fuel elements are arranged in a square array with a wide spacing and are spaced by laminated spacing lattices.

V. M. Troyanov

Papers

Heavy Liquid Metal Coolant – Lead–Bismuth and Lead – Technology

Tests of Models of BREST-OD-300 Reactor Fuel Elements in an Autonomous Lead-Cooled Channel of a BOR-60 Reactor