About Mudawar Thermal Systems Inc.

Our company was founded by Dr. Issam Mudawar in 1992, and is headquartered at the Ross Enterprise Center in the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, Indiana. Our mission is to address complex temperature control and thermal management needs of today and tomorrow using innovative cooling schemes. We capitalize upon the unique expertise of our engineering team to develop solutions to our customers’ thermal management problems for which no commercial remedies are presently available.
Our primary products and services are:

  1. R&D of liquid cooling systems for computer and aerospace electronics
  2. R&D of phase-change (boiling and condensation) devices and systems
  3. Thermal testing and obtaining heat transfer data for customers
  4. Modeling and analysis of complex thermal systems
  5. Design, fabrication, and instrumentation of high-heat-flux heaters and thermal test facilities

Dr. Issam Mudawar, President

Dr. Issam Mudawar

Dr. Issam Mudawar joined Purdue University in 1984 immediately after receiving his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering with minor in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At Purdue, he founded both the Boiling and Two-Phase Flow Laboratory (PU-BTPFL) and International Electronic Cooling Alliance (PU-IECA). In 1992, he founded Mudawar Thermal Systems, Inc., which is based in the Purdue Research Park. He has supervised over 65 Ph.D. and M.S. students and visiting scholars, and written 4 handbooks, 210 archival journal papers, 9 book chapters, and numerous conference papers and presentations. His citation record and h-index according to Google and ISI, respectively, are 7046 and 46, and 11,940 and 60.

Dr. Mudawar is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and Member of both the American Society for Metals (ASM) and the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR). He is internationally recognized for theoretical and experimental research on phase change mechanisms and applications in energy, electronics thermal management, space, and intelligent materials processing. Following are brief descriptions of his contributions in each of these areas.

Theoretical Two-Phase Research: His theoretical research encompasses virtually every aspect of phase change. Examples include theory of initiation of nucleate boiling, critical heat flux (CHF), minimum film boiling point, contact angle, turbulence in the vicinity of moving interfaces, pool boiling, wavy falling films, thin film condensation, heating, evaporation and boiling, channel flow boiling, flow boiling on curved surfaces, boiling in rotating systems, droplet impact dynamics, sprays, jets, and enhanced surfaces. He is also credited for authoring the first comprehensive methodology for analysis of boiling in micro-channels. He has developed customized experimental methods for these studies including simultaneous use of laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) and parallel-wire conductance probes, micro-particle image velocimetry (micro-PIV), photomicrography, high speed video imaging, and specialized microfabrication techniques and carbon nanotube surface coating. One of his key research accomplishments is the attainment of the world's highest phase-change cooling heat flux, over 27,000 W/cm2, using innovative micro-heat-exchanger technology.

Energy Research: Dr. Mudawar’s energy research encompasses numerous energy systems and applications, including magnetohydrodynamic energy conversion, liquid-cooled industrial gas turbine engines, high efficiency gas turbine power cycles, vertical evaporators, rotating evaporators, vertical condensers, desalination, particle accelerators, metal hydride hydrogen fuel cell storage systems, energy efficiency improvement and reduced water utilization in metal processing, and nuclear power generation. Published in 1999, his theoretical models and consolidated databases in the three-volume handbook “Critical Heat Flux (CHF) for Water in Tubes” is used by many nuclear reactor manufacturers to predict upper safely limits for reactor operation.

Electronics Thermal Management: launched in 1984, Dr. Mudawar’s Purdue University International Electronics Cooling Alliance (PU-IECA) quickly became the nation’s first laboratory dedicated to the study of very-high-flux and phase change thermal management of electronics using such schemes as thermosyphons, semi-passive falling film cooling, channel-flow boiling, micro-channel boiling, micro-channel condensation, jet impingement, spray cooling, and vapor compression loops. He has played a pioneering national and international role in the development of thermal solutions for supercomputers, servers, laptops, chip testing, hybrid vehicle power electronics, and x-ray medical devices and systems.

Space Research: Dr. Mudawar has played a critical role in NASA’s shift from present mostly single-phase liquid-cooled thermal management and control systems for space missions to two-phase thermal management. These efforts are aimed at capitalizing upon the orders-of-magnitude enhancement with boiling and condensing flows compared to their single-phase counterparts. He has performed extensive microgravity flow boiling experiments in parabolic flight and developed the first theoretical model for flow boiling critical heat flux in microgravity. At Purdue, he is presently partnering with the NASA Glenn Research Center on design of the Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE) for the International Space Station (ISS), and on the implementation of phase change processes in space power generation, cabin temperature control, waste management, and regenerative fuel cells. In a related study, he developed a theoretical model for successful startup of capillary pumped loops used for thermal management in satellites and space systems.

Intelligent Materials Processing: Since the 1980s, Dr. Mudawar has pursued several studies aimed at developing an intelligent heat treating technology for complex-shaped metal alloy parts that would eliminate altogether the trial-and-error approach prevalent in the industry today. Using cooling and metallurgical transformation models, he developed a CAD-based pilot facility where the most critical phase of heat treating, the quench, is optimized by configuring water cooling sprays in response to the part’s shape and mass. This technology has been shown to greatly increase part strength and hardness, enhance corrosion resistance, reduce residual stresses, warping, and cracking, greatly increase productivity, and virtual eliminate scrap. Another important aspect of this technology is the development of new non-contact temperature measurement techniques and algorithms.

In 1995 and 1996, “Business Week” featured Dr. Mudawar's breakthroughs under "Developments to Watch" in three separate issues during a single 10-month period. In 1997, he earned the title of Fellow of ASME. He has received several research awards, including the ASME Journal of Electronic Packaging outstanding paper award for 1995, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer award for the two most cited articles for 2005-2008, Rolls-Royce Milestone Award for 2009, 75th anniversary medal of the ASME Heat Transfer Division, 2013 ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award in science category, and 2013 American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR) Founder's Award.  In 2015 he was named the Betty Ruth and Milton B. Hollander Family Professor of Mechanical Engineering. In the same year, he was recognized by Thomson Reuters as Highly Cited Researcher, and included in “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds 2015.”

He also received several awards for dedicated teaching and service at Purdue, including the Solberg Award for best teacher in mechanical engineering for 1987, 1992, 1996, and 2004, the Charles Murphy Award for outstanding teaching for 1997, the Ruth and Joel Spira Award for 1999, and the Purdue Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers professor of the year award for 1985 and 1987. He is a Founding Fellow of the Purdue University Teaching Academy and Inaugural Member of the Purdue University Book of Great Teachers.