Cooling Performance of a Two-Phase (Vapor-Liquid) Flow-Cooling System

Abstract

Cooling capability is measured for a two-phase (vapor-liquid) flow-cooling system in terms of its thermal resistance and cooling power. The performance is compared between systems with and without a pump that drives the flow of a dielectric working fluid with a low boiling point. The geometry of the boiling chamber is first examined for each flow configuration to ensure the best possible performance. The results show that using a pump does not always result in higher power consumption than that of a thermal siphon system and the driving force generated by the pump augments phase-change heat transfer thereby reducing the fan power to minimize the overall power consumption. The present results show that the flow-boiling system has a high cooling capability using a small amount of cooling power compared with the thermal siphon.