Abstract
Phase change material (PCM) is widely used to control temperature because of its easy control, and independent work even without external power supply. However, few studies focus on temperature control via a PCM cooling system without auxiliary facilities, in an intensive heat-releasing space during emergency power failure. This study takes an information system room with an emergency power failure as the research object. A cooling system implementing PCM plates is proposed and its feasibility is analyzed. A mathematical heat transfer model, which considers the air, heat source, phase change cooling devices, and the enclosure structure of room, is established. The performance of the PCM and air temperature are analyzed, and the effects of the melting temperature, latent heat, thermal conductivity, and size of the PCM plates are systematically investigated. Analysis results indicate that: (i) Under the condition of parameter optimization, the air temperature is 32.10 °C at 9 h. Therefore, the cooling system utilizing the PCM plates can effectively maintain the air temperature of the information system room below 35 °C within 9 h. Until 16 h, the air temperature remains below 35 °C. (ii) Increasing the aspect ratio of PCM plates and decreasing PCM latent heat have the similar effect on the air temperature control. Additionally, the two parameters are related to the surface area of the PCM plates. (iii) The lower the melting temperature of the PCM, the better the air temperature can be controlled. For the conditions considered in this study, the appropriate melting temperature is approximately 25 °C. (iv) As thermal conductivity increases, air temperature reduces, and fluctuation of the PCM heat flow significantly decreases. However, as the thermal conductivity approaches 1 W/(m·K), further increases in the thermal conductivity have no marked impact on air temperature control.
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