Apparent Slip Enhanced Magnetohydrodynamic Pump
21 July 2016
Reliable thermal management is a key aspect in the operation of telecommunications equipment, both photonic and electronic. In liquid-cooled thermal management, conventional pump designs incorporate moving parts, introducing reliability concerns. The magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) phenomenon can be used to fabricate highly reliable, compact, solid-state pumps that avoid moving parts and make it suitable for rack level integration in telecommunications equipment. However, pumping efficiency and performance is limited by pressure losses in the pump. Here we explore the performance of an MHD pump demonstrating apparent hydrodynamic and thermal slip on its major walls (perpendicular to the magnetic field) that can be achieved using micro-nano structured surfaces to reduce pressure losses due to friction. Our initial analysis suggests that, while the pump section performance can be significantly enhanced by apparent slip, the overall pump performance is strongly dictated by the nature of pressure losses associated with the fringing magnetic field at the pump inlet and outlet such that enhancement due to apparent slip is only manifested for relatively long pump sections.
