Experimental investigation on thermosyphon aid phase change material heat exchanger for electronic cooling applications

Abstract

In this work, cooling of electronic modules is experimentally investigated using a thermosyphon aid phase change material (PCM) heat exchanger with different thermic fluids such as n-hexane, benzene and DI water respectively. The experiments are conducted simultaneously by evaluating the thermal performance of thermic fluids and heat power stored by PCM for various heat inputs ranging from 70 to 110 W. At high heat input conditions, the value of low thermal resistance, maximum convective heat transfer coefficient (CHTC) and percentage of heat extraction of n-hexane are 0.350 K/W, 185.53 W/m2K and 99.2% respectively. Low enthalpy of vapourization and a high degree of superheat is the criteria for the obtained results. Also, temperature variation in PCM during melting is analysed by the influence of vapourized thermic fluids for different heat inputs. The maximum heat power stored by PCM is found as 7.78 W for vapourized n-hexane at 110 W due to high mass flow rate and less time for reaching steady-state temperature (SST) of PCM. The solidification of PCM is noted using cold water at regular time intervals during power-off conditions and observed that n-hexane influenced molten PCM takes 25 min for complete solidification.