With a major grant from the Office of Naval Affairs, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are collaborating with four other universities to address keeping modern ships cool in extreme environments. Led by the University of Virginia and funded under the Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program, the overall research aim will be to develop cooling techniques that can be used for thermal management of large-scale, distributed high-power electronic systems. The project is funded by a $7.5 million grant, and Rensselaer stands to receive $3.4 million over the next five years for its portion of the research.

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The researchers involved in the cross-university collaboration will work to develop thermal management techniques that reduce device temperatures below 50 8C. To do this, each of the universities will use their research strengths, handling different research thrusts that will later be integrated to help develop the next generation of ultra-efficient electronic systems. Rensselaer will lead the research thrust examining the potential of using liquids to cool electronic systems. They will focus on interactions at the interface between hot electronic circuitry and a liquid, as well as determining how to integrate and manage the cooling of thousands of heat-generating sources distributed over a wide area.

The grant funding is part of a total $207 million in research funding announced March 7 by the Department of Defense (DoD). The MURI program supports multidisciplinary research in areas of DoD relevance that intersect more than one traditional science and engineering discipline. It allows teams of researchers with a variety of expertise to work together to accelerate research progress.

For more information, visit http://news.rpi.edu.