Two-Phase Liquid Cooling System for Electronics, Part 3: Ultra-Compact Liquid-Cooled Condenser
27 July 2017
An experimental study to investigate the thermal performance of a two-phase thermosyphon for electronics cooling is presented in this article. In this study, the thermosyphon evaporator was connected via a riser and a downcomer to an ultra-compact condenser operating as a refrigerant-to-refrigerant counter flow heat exchanger. The secondary side of the condenser evaporated R134a from a "bus line" to condense the working fluid in the thermosyphon. Experiments were carried out for filling ratios ranging from 60% to 76%, heat loads from 102 W to 1841 W, secondary side mass flow rates from 40 kg/h to 120 kg/h, inlet subcoolings from about 0 K to 5 K, and saturation pressures from 600 kPa to 730 kPa. Robust thermal performance was observed for the entire range of operating test conditions. In particular, at the optimum filling ratio of 65%, secondary side mass flow rate of 80 kg/h, inlet subcooling close to 0 K and saturation pressure of 600 kPa, the mean temperature difference from the evaporator to inlet coolant was only 9.4 K. Experimental results demonstrated an increase of 14X in heat density dissipation, 19X increase in energy efficiency and a virtually noiseless system compared to the air-cooled thermosyphon discussed in Part 2.