On the hydrodynamic characterization of a passive Shape Memory Alloy valve

A Waddell, J Punch, Jason Stafford, N Jeffers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

An attractive approach to the thermal management of next generation photonics devices (heat fluxes > 102 W/cm2) is micro-channel cooling, and micro-valves will be required for refined flow control in the supporting micro-fluidic systems. In this paper, a NiTi Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) micro-valve design for passive flow control and thermal management was prototyped at the macro scale and hydrodynamically characterized. The dynamic behavior of the valve was observed and the loss coefficient (ζv) derived from pressure-flow measurements. The hydrodynamic characterization study is important because ζv is sensitive to Re and geometry in the flow regime of the micro-fluidic system. Static replicas of the SMA valve geometry were tested for low Re (110–220) and a range of opening ratios (β) in a ø1 mm miniature channel. The loss coefficients were found to be sensitive to flow rate and decreased rapidly with an increase in Re. A correlation was developed to interpolate ζv from a given Re and β. The valve loss coefficients obtained in this work are important parameters in the modeling and design of future micro-fluidic cooling systems.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)731-737
Number of pages7
JournalApplied Thermal Engineering
Volume75
Early online date15 Oct 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 22 Jan 2015

Keywords

  • Passive valve
  • Thermal management
  • Shape Memory
  • Forced convection
  • Loss coefficients

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