Mist cooling in a confined chamber

• Main Author: Cheu, Zikai
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Fluid mechanics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/60149
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The rapid advancement of technologies along with the aggressive miniaturisation of electronic components has resulted in the increase of power density of these components used in the computing systems today. While direct air convection cooling has been able to keep up with the power increases to date, it is quickly approaching the maximum power dissipation threshold that can be achieved. Mist cooling is one of the dual-phase cooling configurations that have gained the attention of the industry. The performance of this cooling solution capitalises on the coolant’s latent heat rather than sensible heat alone to absorb for greater amounts of heat while maintaining lower surface temperatures. It was established that several parameters affect the overall heat transfer coefficient and efficient of the system including droplet size, droplet concentration and droplet velocity. The investigation of the cooling performance of mist cooling in a confined chamber has been conducted. For the purpose of the experiment, the test vehicle models after the CHAMP-AV8 from Curtiss Wright in terms of the location of the processor. As the coolant to be used will be in direct contact with electronics, dielectric fluids will have to be used. It was established that the heat transfer coefficients of upstream heaters are much higher than that of the downstream heaters. However, increase in fluid pressure did not have any noticeable difference in the cooling performances. The investigation was also extended to determine if the orientation of the test vehicle could improve the cooling performance.