Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: This article experimentally investigates the thermal performances of a heat pipe with phase change
Received 6 July 2010 material for electronic cooling. The adiabatic section of heat pipe is covered by a storage container with
Received in revised form 9 November 2010 phase change material (PCM), which can store and release thermal energy depending upon the heating
Accepted 1 December 2010
powers of evaporator and fan speeds of condenser. Experimental investigations are conducted to obtain
Available online 28 December 2010
the system temperature distributions from the charge, discharge and simultaneous charge/discharge per-
formance tests. The parameters in this study include three kinds of PCMs, different lling PCM volumes,
Keywords:
fan speeds, and heating powers in the PCM cooling module. The cooling module with tricosane as PCM
Heat pipe
Electronic cooling
can save 46% of the fan power consumption compared with the traditional heat pipe.
Phase change material 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
0306-2619/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2010.12.004
1826 Y.-C. Weng et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 18251833
Nomenclature
For getting modules thermal performance, the temperature is In the PCM cooling module performance tests, the main PCM is
measured by T-type thermocouples mounted inside the energy tricosane. This article also selects water and no PCM (traditional
storage tank. T1 is the heater temperature, T2, T5 and T8 are the heat pipe) for comparison with PCM cooling module performance.
PCM temperature on the heat pipe upper surface, T3, T6 and T9 Experimental parameters include different lling volumes (85 cc.
are on the heat pipe side, and T4, T7, T10 are on the heat pipe lower and 100 cc.), heating powers (10 W and 20 W), and fan voltages
surface, respectively. Fig. 2b demonstrates the phase change cool- (3.5 V and 5 V), the detail operation condition as described in
ing module. The heat pipe is made of Cu with a length of 120 mm Table 1.
and diameter of 6 mm. The shape of heat pipe is at. Working uid
inside the heat pipe is water. Total cooling area of the heat sink is 2.1. Thermal performance analysis
0.0232 m2. The heat sink has 29 ns and each size of n is 5 mm in
height, 40 mm in width, and 0.2 mm in thickness. The energy stor- Energy balance equation of the heat pipe-PCM module during a
age tank is made of acrylic and maximum volume is 120 cc. Based time interval Dt, from initial time ti to nial time te, can be
on the uncertainty analysis proposed by ISO standards [16], the expressed as:
uncertainties of temperature measurement are 0.5%.
Ta
Tm
Te Tf,d
Te,d Tc,d
Te,g
Th
Tp
(i)
Evaporation Condensation
(ii)
Evaporation Condensation
Fig. 1. Temperature measurement locations of the heat pipe-PCM module.
Y.-C. Weng et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 18251833 1827
Fig. 2. (a) Apparatus of a heat pipe-PCM module performance test and measurement points. (b) The reality of phase change cooling module.
Table 1 Qs, and the total heat loss, Qt. The energy storage in the PCM is re-
Operation condition of the heat pipe-PCM module. lated to the mass and the temperature difference between initial
Operation Charge Discharge Simultaneous charge and discharge and nal temperature of PCM in the storage tank. It can be shown as:
model
Q w M m C p;m T e T i 2
Heating 10 W 10 W Oscillate every 5 min with 10 W
power and 20 W where
20 W 20 W
Fan voltage None 3.4 V 3.4 V 1X 8
Ti T n;i 3
None 5V 5V 8 n1
PCM Tricosane Tricosane Tricosane
1X 8
Water Water Water Te T n;e 4
None None None 8 n1
PCM volume 85 cc. 85 cc. 85 cc.
Based on the same assumption used in Eq. (2), the energy stor-
100 cc.
age in the tank body can be written as:
Qp Qw Qs Qt 1 Q s M s C p;s T e T i 5
Total heat loss is assumed to be proportional to the difference
The energy input by power supply, Qp, is equal to the summation of between the mean system temperature and the ambient tempera-
energy storage in the PCM, Qw, the energy storage in the tank body, ture. It can be expressed as:
1828 Y.-C. Weng et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 18251833
(a) 80 Table 2
PCMs thermal performance comparison.
50
40
PCM Initial Temperature = 30C (a) 100
30 Power Input = 20W
20
Lauric Acid (12 Acid) 80
Palmitic Acid (16 Acid)
10 Tricosane (Paraffin 116)
Temperature (C)
60 Heating Power = 10W
0
0 300 600 900 1200 1500 1800 PCM Volume = 85c.c.
Time (sec)
W/O PCM
(b) 80 40 Water
Tricosane
70
20
60
Temperature (C)
0
50 0 1200 2400 3600 4800
Time (sec)
40
PCM Initial Temperature = 30C
30 Power Input = 30W (b) 100
20
Lauric Acid (12 Acid)
80
Palmitic Acid (16 Acid)
10 Tricosane (Paraffin 116)
Temperature (C)
(c) 80 40
Water
Tricosane
70
20
60
Temperature (C)
50 0
0 600 1200 1800 2400
40 Time (sec)
PCM Initial Temperature = 30C
30 Power Input = 40W Fig. 4. Temperature evolutions of water and tricosane at different heating powers
in charge process: (a) 10 W and (b) 20 W.
20 Lauric Acid (12 Acid)
Palmitic Acid (16 Acid) Ti Te
10 Tricosane (Paraffin 116) T av e 7
2
0
0 120 240 360 480 600
Time (sec) 3. Results and discussions
Fig. 3. Heater temperature evolutions in different heating powers for lauric acid, Fig. 3 shows the temperature evolutions of different PCMs un-
palmitic acid and tricosane, respectively: (a) 20 W, (b) 30 W, and (c) 40 W. der the condition of various heating powers. As seen from the g-
ures, tricosane takes 973 s to reach 60 C at a heating power of
20 W, but lauric and palmitic acids take 1041 and 582 s to attain
Q t U t T av e T a 6 60 C, respectively. At a heating power of 30 W and 40 W, tricosane
needs 477 and 307 s to achieve 60 C, respectively. Lauric acid
where Ut is a proportional constant known as the overall coefcient takes 396 and 239 s and palmitic acid needs 198 and 96 s. In Table
of total heat loss rate. For simplication, the mean system temper- 2 , the study found lauric acid is the lowest. But in latent heat com-
ature can be dened as the arithmetic mean of the initial and nal parison, tricosane is the highest. Overall, tricosane is superior to
PCM temperatures in the storage tank. It can be described as: the other PCM. Hence, using tricosane as a PCM has the better heat
Y.-C. Weng et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 18251833 1829
Temperature (C)
60 60
50
40 40
H e at er T e m p er at ur e
30 Heater
PCM V ol u m e = 8 5 c. c. PCM T e m p er at ur e
20 20
PCM = Tricosane Upper
F a n V olt a g e = 3 . 4 V Side
10
Lo wer
0 0
0 1200 2400 3600 4800 6000 7200 8400 0 1200 2400 3600
Time (sec) Time (sec)
70
Temperature (C)
60 Temperature (C) 60
50
40 40
H e at er T e m p er at ur e
30 Heater
20 PCM V ol u m e = 8 5 c. c. PCM T e m p er at ur e
20
PCM = W at er Upper
F a n V olt a g e = 3 . 4 V Side
10
Lo wer
0 0
0 1200 2400 3600 4800 6000 7200 8400 0 1200 2400 3600
Time (sec) Time (sec)
Fig. 5. Heater temperature evolutions of water and tricosane at different fan Fig. 6. Temperature evolutions of the heater for the PCM in simultaneous charge
voltages in discharge process: (a) 3.4 V and (b) 5 V. and discharge process: (a) tricosane and (b) water.
Fig. 7a shows that for the traditional heat pipe W/O PCM at a fan
storage performance. In addition, the energy storage tank is cor- voltage of 3.4 V, the lowest and the highest heater temperatures
roded when lauric or palmitic acids are used. Consequently, this are 64.3 C and 85.3 C. For water, the lowest and the highest hea-
article utilizes tricosane as the PCM for the cooling module. ter temperatures are 60.5 C and 79 C. With tricosane as a PCM,
Fig. 4a shows the temperature evolutions of water and tricosane the lowest and the highest heater temperatures are 55.5 C and
at different heating powers in the charge process of PCM cooling 69 C. The temperature differences are 21 C, 18.5 C, and 14 C
module. When tricosane and water are used as PCMs, the energy for W/O PCM, water, and tricosane, respectively. According to these
storage time compared with no PCM (W/O PCM) condition can in- results, this study proves that the tricosane can effectively provide
crease by about four times at 10 W. In Fig. 4b, an increase in the in- a lower temperature rise and also more uniform temperature
put power to 20 W causes a clear decrease in the energy storage evolutions.
time of these three cooling modules. The energy storage time is Fig. 7b shows that as the fan voltage changes from 3.4 V to 5 V,
370, 1530, and 2050 s for W/O PCM, water, and tricosane, respec- the lowest and the highest heater temperature of the traditional
tively. In the discharge process, as illustrated in Fig. 5a and b, the cooling module decrease to 74.2 C and 57.2 C, respectively. The
heater temperature needs about 1680 s to decrease from 90 C to temperature difference is reduced to 17 C. When water is the en-
30 C when the fan voltage is 3.4 V. In contrast, the water and trico- ergy storage material, the lowest and the highest heater tempera-
sane only need 3500 and 7800 s, respectively. tures are 70.2 C and 55.1 C, respectively, and the temperature
The primary purpose of the simultaneous charge and discharge difference is 15.1 C. These results are very close to tricosane at a
is to simulate the heating power which changes with time in an ac- 3.4 V fan voltage. Therefore, under the same heating power rate
tual application. Fig. 6 indicates that when water or tricosane is and temperature change, the power consumption using tricosane
used as the PCM, the PCM temperature changes in synchrony with is 0.6 W with a 3.4 V fan voltage. In order to have the same perfor-
heating power. This means that the PCM can charge the heat from mance, the power consumption with water is 1.12 W and also
a high heating power rate and discharge the heat of the heat pipe needs an increase in fan voltage to 5 V. Based on the experimental
and heat sink at a lower heating power rate to reach the goal of en- results, utilizing tricosane as PCM can save 46% in electronic
ergy management. power.
1830 Y.-C. Weng et al. / Applied Energy 88 (2011) 18251833
(a) 90 (a) 80
PCM V ol u m e = 8 5 c. c.
80
70
70
Temperature (C)
Temperature (C)
60 60
50
50
40
C D C D C D C D C D Fan Voltage = 3.4V
30 40
C : Charge > Discharge D: Discharge > Charge
Tricosane Volume = 100c.c.
20 W/ O PCM 3.4V Tricosane Volume = 85c.c.
Water 3.4V 30
10 Tricosane 3.4V 20
10
0 0
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600 0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600 4200 4800
Time (sec) Time (sec)
(b) 80 (b) 80
PCM V ol u m e = 8 5 c. c.
70
70
60
Temperature (C)
Temperature (C)
60
50
40 50
C D C D C D C D C D
Table 3 point, the heat is stored by latent heat. The PCM and heater tem-
Order of magnitude of thermal resistance for the perature various is increase smoothly. This phenomenon also
heat pipe-PCM module.
proves that the PCM can decrease the tendency of temperature ris-
Parameter Order of magnitude ing. After PCM totally melts, the heat is absorbed by liquid state
Ro 102 sensible heat. The heater and PCM temperature are increase with
Rt1 103 time. This gure also shows the prediction of PCM temperature
Rc 103 is lower than the experimental data at the same time in charge
Rp 100
Rhp 101
process. This is because a circular heat pipe is regarded as an ideal
Rev 101 simulation condition in the thermal resistance model. In actuality,
Rt2 104 the real system adopts a at pipe, and it has poor heat exchange
Rm 101 area in the sideways direction. In the simulation model, however,
Rt3 103
Rf 101
100
Power Input = 10 W
Table 4
90 PCM Volume = 85 c.c.
Order of magnitude of heat capacity for the heat PCM = Tricosane
80
pipe-PCM module.
Temperature (C)
70
Parameter Order of magnitude
60
Cp 102
Ce 101 50
Cc 100
Cm 104 40
Cf 101 30 Heater (Experiment)
Heater (Simulation)
20
PCM (Experiment)
10 PCM (Simulation)
sidered negligible in this research. The detail denition of the ther-
mal resistances and heat capacitors are described in Tables 5 and 6. 0
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600 4200
Fig. 10 shows the prediction results of the thermal resistance
capacitor model and the experimental data. As the storage tank be- Time (hr)
gins operation, the PCM stores the heat by sensible heat and the
Fig. 10. Comparison of heater and PCM temperature evolutions between experi-
temperature goes rising. And at the beginning of PCM melting ment and simulation in charge process.
Table 5
Thermal resistance of the heat pipe-PCM module.
PCM thermal resistance (the liquid state lnDd =Dg [21] Dd = Outer diameter of PCM solidify around the heat pipe, Dg = inner
Rm 2pkm Lc
PCM translates to solid state), Rm diameter of heat pipe, km = thermal conductivity coefcient of PCM
Fin thermal resistance, Rf q1 tb [22] tb = Bottom plate thickness of the n, n = n number, B = n interval, Hf = n
Rf kb WL
2hf
hf tanh H
kf tf f
height, W = n width
q hf bWn1
2hf
2WHf n1 H
kf t f f
Table 6
Heat capacity of the heat pipe-PCM module.
the heat pipe is regarded as circular shape. The heat pipe has uni- third step is to set up the phase change thermal resistance capacity
form heat ux around itself, and the PCM around the heat pipe can model by using fundamental theory of heat transfer and similarity
absorb heat smoothly. It also lowers the heater temperature more of electric circuit. The fourth step is to analyze heat transfer perfor-
quickly. The root mean square deviation between simulation and mance by software. The fth step is to change the system design
experiment is about 19.4%. and reanalyzes. The last step is to export different design results
The theoretical performance analysis process of phase change of thermal performance. In step 3, however, due to the relation be-
cooling module is shown in Fig. 11. The rst step is to input the tween temperature difference and heat transfer rate is nonlinear in
properties of phase change material, working uid properties and phase change cooling module. This article utilizes linear unit prop-
dimensions of cooling module. The second step is to import initial erties which changes with time to simulate nonlinear unit. The de-
temperature of energy storage material and working uid. The tail methods are described as follow: As the rst time step nished,
this step simulation results are adopted to the next time initial
condition. Follow this simulation method and change the property
of electric unit as next time step. This procedure can provide more
approximate analysis for nonlinear simulation.
Fig. 12 shows the transient simulation processes for phase
change cooling module. As the latent heat is stored by energy stor-
age material (ESM), the ESMs temperature difference is related to
heat transfer coefcient and heat pipe surface. From ESMs initial
temperature, the heat transfer coefcient and hat transfer rate is
calculated by Rieger et al. [21]. During a time period simulation,
the PCMs heat storage, temperature difference and temperature
rising are solved. The second time step initial condition is the result
of the rst time step. The way of simulation can compute the var-
ious temperature difference of phase change cooling module.
Fig. 13 indicates the heater temperature evolutions for PCM.
The maximum heater temperature is 66 C in the simulation, and
the maximum experimental heater temperature is 68 C. The dif-
ference between experimental and simulation values is due to
ignoring the small thermal resistance of one order of magnitude,
80
Heater Temperature
Experiment
Simulation
70
Temperature (C)
60
50
0
0 400 800 1200 1600 2000
Time (sec)
80 4. Conclusions
Case 1
Case 2 This PCM module automatically adjusts the heat transfer rate
70 Case 3 for cooling an electric device, in a manner that is dependent on
Heater Temperature (C)
the PCM mass, fan voltage, and heater temperature. The thermal
performance of the cooling module is determined by the measured
temperature evolutions of the storage tank under different charge
60
and discharge processes. This study proves that the heat pipe mod-
ule with tricosane as PCM can reduce fan power consumption up to
46% and 12.3 C average heater temperature as compared with no
50 thermal storage material.
References
40
10 PCM Volume = 85c.c. Fan Voltage = 3.4V [1] Chen SL, Chen CL, Tin CC, Lee TS, Ke MC. An experimental investigation of cold
PCM = Tricosane storage in an encapsulated thermal storage tank. Exp Therm Fluid Sci
2000;23:13344.
0
0 400 800 1200 1600 2000 [2] Chen BR, Chang YW, Lee WS, Chen SL. Long-term thermal performance of a
two-phase thermosyphon solar water heater. Solar Energy 2009;83:104855.
Time (sec) [3] Fok SC, Shen W, Tan FL. Cooling of portable hand-held electronic using phase
change materials in nned heat sinks. Int J Therm Sci 2010;49:10917.
Fig. 14. Performance improvement for different cases in the heat pipe-PCM [4] Lu TJ. Thermal management of high power electronics with phase change
module. cooling. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 2000;43:224556.
[5] Chow LC, Zhong JK. Thermal conductivity enhancement for phase change
storage media. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 1996;23:91100.
[6] Kandasamy R, Wang XQ, Mujumdar AS. Application of phase change materials
which makes the total thermal resistance of the heat pipe-PCM in thermal management of electronics. Appl Therm Eng 2007;27:282232.
module smaller. In addition, the trends of the simulation heater [7] Wang XQ, Mujumdar AS, Yap C. Effect of orientation for phase change material
temperature and the PCM temperature are also lower than seen (PCM)-based heat sinks for transient thermal management of electric
components. Int Commun Heat Mass Transfer 2007;34:8018.
for the experimental data.
[8] Yin H, Gao X, Ding J, Zhang Z. Experimental research on heat transfer
By applying the prediction from the above thermal model, this mechanism of heat sink with composite phase change materials. Energy
article also provide three strategies to improve the thermal perfor- Convers Manage 2008;49:17406.
mance of the present heat pipe-PCM cooling module. The rst is [9] Tan FL, Tso CP. Cooling of mobile electronic devices using phase change
material. Appl Therm Eng 2004;24:15969.
that adding condenser n number is twice much as that of the ori- [10] Yoo DW, Joshi YK. Energy efcient thermal management of electronic
ginal model. The second is to increase the heat pipe diameter component using solidliquid phase change material. IEEE Trans Dev Mater
which is three times as much as the ordinary contact area with Reliab 2004;4:6419.
[11] Zheng N, Wirtz RA. A hybrid thermal energy storage device, part 1: design
PCM. In the third case, the PCM thermal conductivity is considered methodology. J Electron Packag 2004;126:17.
to be three times of the original model. [12] Zheng N, Wirtz RA. A hybrid thermal energy storage device, part 2: thermal
Fig. 14 shows the prediction results of three improvement cases performance gures of merit. J Electron Packag 2004;126:813.
[13] Eftekhar J, Haji-Sheikh A, Lou YS. Heat transfer enhancement in a parafn wax
in simultaneous charge and discharge process. When the con- thermal storage system. J Solar Energy Eng 1984;106:299306.
denser n number increases (Case 1), the highest temperature de- [14] Sari A. Thermal reliability test of some fatty acid as PCM used for solar thermal
creases from 67.7 C to 62.7 C and the lowest temperature also latent heat storage applications. Energy Convers Manage 2003;44:227787.
[15] Seeniraj RV, Velraj R, Narasimhan NL. Heat transfer enhancement study of a
reduces 5 C. The temperature difference of 13.6 C is similar to LHTSt containing dispersed high conductivity particles. J Solar Energy Eng
the original design and can attain the goal of decreasing heater 2002;124:2439.
temperature. Compared with original contact area, the increase [16] ISO. Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement. International
Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland; 1995.
of the three times of the area (Case 2) can decrease temperature
[17] Kreith F, Bohn MS. Principles of heat transfer. 4th ed. New York: Harper and
about 10.8 C and 8.7 C for the highest and lowest temperature, Row, Publishers Inc.; 1986.
respectively. It also reduces the average temperature of 2.1 C, [18] Dunn P, Reay DA. Heat pipes. England: Pergamon Press; 1978.
and the amplitude of temperature vibration of 2.1 C. When the [19] Kreith F, Bohn MS. Principles of heat transfer; 2001.
[20] ONeill PS, Gottzman CF, Terbot JW. In: Timmerhaus KD, editor. Novel heat
PCM thermal conductivity becomes three times of the original exchanger increases cascade cycle efciency for natural gas liquefaction in
model (Case 3), the highest temperature is decreased to 52.7 C advances in cryogenic engineering. New York: Plenum; 1972. p. 42037.
and the lowest temperature is reduced to 44.6 C. The amplitude [21] Rieger H, Projahn U, Beer H. Analysis of the heat transport mechanisms during
melting around a horizontal circular cylinder. Int J Heat Mass Transfer
of temperature vibration is also deceased to 5.5 C, which means 1982;25:13747.
that the heater temperature has better uniform temperature evolu- [22] Chiang YC. Study and application of the micro structure vapor chamber, PhD
tions during a changing heating rate. thesis, National Taiwan University; 2005.