Hybrid nanofluid spray cooling performance and its residue surface effects: Toward thermal management of high heat flux devices

•Hybrid nanofluid spray system.shows critical heat flux enhancement up to 126%.•Critical heat flux enhancement may be due to residue wetting and wicking effects.•Hybrid nanofluid sprays show higher heat transfer coefficient than existing fluids.•Existing fluid sprays fail to effectively cool electric vehicle power electronics.•Hybrid nanofluid sprays can effectively cool electric vehicle power electronics. In recent years, heat dissipation in high heat flux devices remarkably increased and it is anticipated to reach unprecedented levels in future devices, mainly due to increased power density, compact packaging and high-performance requirements. To address this challenge, in current research, we initially investigate the spray cooling performance and spray residue surface effects of the next generation thermal fluid, called hybrid nanofluid. Subsequently, we investigate the hybrid nanofluid spray cooling potential to address heat dissipation issues in a high heat flux application, that is, the electric vehicle (EV) high power electronics. Our results demonstrate that the critical heat flux (CHF) enhancement up to 126% can be achieved using the hybrid nanofluid spray cooling compared to water spray cooling. The hybrid nanofluid and its spray residue characterization further suggest that high CHF in hybrid nanofluid spray cooling may be due to high latent heat of vaporization and residue wetting and wicking effects. Moreover, the spray cooling efficiency and Nusselt number obtained for hybrid nanofluid spray cooling is more than twice that of water spray cooling. Furthermore, our results indicate that the hybrid nanofluid spray cooling can keep high power electronics of current and future electric vehicles below their failure temperatures, while the same cannot be achieved using water and dielectric fluid spray cooling.