Convective Electronic Device Cooling Using Microencapsulated Phase Change Material Slurry in Planar Spiral Coil

Abstract

The current trend in miniaturization of electronic devises requires more effective thermal management techniques to remove the heat to ensure the maximum performance of the devise. Among all available thermal management techniques for electronic cooling, convective heat transfer cooling has gained attentions due to low cost and maturity in the market. The single-phase convective heat removal technique suffers from the low heat carrying capacity since there is no phase change occurs during the process. On the other hand, Microencapsulated phase change materials (MPCMs) are gaining attention due to their high heat carrying capacity. MPCMs are composed of phase change material (PCM) as the core material that is encapsulated with micrometer size shell materials. The PCM inside the capsules may undergo a phase change as the temperature varies around the melting and freezing temperature points of the PCM. This leads to a significant heat gain/release due to the phase change of the PCM. In this paper, we are performing a numerical modeling on the performance of MPCMs mixed with single-phase base fluid when pumped through planar spiral coils. From electronic thermal management point of view, it is ideal to have an enhanced coolant that maintain the operating temperature under an allowable level uniformly. The behavior of MPCM slurry when pumped through planar spiral coils reveals unique patterns due to the centrifugal forces. The available data on MPCM slurry through spiral coil heat exchangers show the new patterns of velocity and heat transfer curves that require further investigation and scientific explanations. The current paper studies the steady conditions of flows under laminar regimes at different boundary conditions. A CAD model of a planar coil heat exchanger is developed in SolidWorks. The model is meshed and discretized in order to apply the governing equations into the model. ANSYS Fluent package is used to solve the fluid flow and heat transfer equations inside the geometry. The velocity and temperature profiles along the coil are studied and discussed to quantify the roles of different forces in such flows. The ultimate goal of this study to evaluate the efficacy of utilizing such formulated microencapsulated PCM slurry at different mass concentrations on electronic thermal management considering the cost associated to the added pressure drop when using MPCM slurry.