Condenser operating conditions effects on dielectric liquid boiling and condensation heat transfer in closed systems

Abstract

Localized boiling and enclosed condensation of a dielectric liquid in a thermosyphon can be used as an alternative to traditional air cooling for high performance microprocessors. A small quantity of dielectric fluid boils at the surface of the microprocessor and is condensed by a heat exchanger, which removes the heat from the system. Here, the heat exchanger was a water-fed cold plate cooling a round fins heat sink. Such a thermosyphon can remove large heat fluxes and increase the energy efficiency of data centers.An experimental setup was built to measure the impact of various operating parameters on the thermal resistances of the thermosyphon. The thermal resistances that were considered were the boiling resistance between the heater and the dielectric fluid, the condensation resistance between the dielectric fluid and the cold water feeding the cold plate, and their sum (the total thermal resistance). The operating parameters tested were the cold plate inlet flow rate (0.2 L/min and 1 L/min), the cold plate inlet temperature (15 °C and 24 °C) and the filling ratio of the enclosure (33 %, 66 % and 88 %).It was observed that changing the filling ratio did not have a significant impact on the thermal resistances of the thermosyphon. Increasing the cold plate inlet flow rate from 0.2 L/min to 1 L/min and decreasing the cold plate inlet temperature from 24 °C to 15 °C both led to significantly lower total thermal resistance. However, increasing the flow rate lowered the rate at which the pressure increased with the amount of heat removed from the system, while this rate did not change when decreasing the cold plate inlet temperature.These observations could be properly explained by a simple analytical model, with a single free parameter (increasing the thermal resistance of the heat sink for the lowest cold plate flow rates). With the free parameter adjusted to the data, the model had a root-mean square error of 1.8 °C and a maximum error of 6 °C, over all measured conditions.This study demonstrates how changing the filling ratio or the cold plate inlet temperature and flow rate have an impact on the pressure, the temperature and the thermal resistances inside the thermosyphon. This is a first step in evaluating the energetic and economic efficiency of the thermosyphon solution for its future integration in data centers.