Thermal Performance of Phase Change Material and Water in Microchannel for CPU Processor Cooling | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

In this work, Phase Change Material (PCM) is used to enhances performance of water cooled Micro Channel Heat Sink (MCHS) for cooling of computer processor. Present study compares four different cooling methods viz., 1) Conventional air cooling method, 2) MCHS with water as coolant, 3) MCHS with water as base fluid and PCM is in suspended form, i.e., PCM slurry, 4) Water is used as primary coolant which passes through microchannel and PCM is used as a secondary coolant which absorbs heat collected by primary coolant, i.e., PCM used to absorb heat in heat exchanger. The objective is to find the effect of PCM as a primary and secondary coolant. The experiments are performed for flow rates ranging from 75 ml/min to 260 ml/min. The results show that cooling systems using PCM are advantageous in comparison to conventional cooling as well as than water cooling system. It is possible to achieve lower maximum temperature of processor for the same mass flow rate or the same pumping power. MCHS with PCM slurry as coolant can form an effective cooling system for high capacity computer processor.