Abstract
In this paper, we propose a ID thermal-fluid network model of phase change cooling device and show how we can estimate the cooling performance of the device by calculating its maximum heat transfer based on the ID simulation. Our calculation is achieved based on Loop heat pipe (LHP) which is a typical model of phase change cooling device. Since evaporator wick and condenser are indispensable components of LHP for determining its cooling performance, we devise a new pressure loss model of wick and a new thermal conductance model of condenser fins. The proposed pressure loss model of wick can simulate how wick dries out accurately by introducing a wick pore inactivation equation to the wick permeability model which was proposed by Blake-Kozeny. For the condenser model, in order to simulate heat radiation of condenser fins, thermal conductance of condenser is defined as a function of temperature difference between working fluid and ambient air. By applying the LHP cooling devise to a server system, we show that the proposed ID model of the LHP cooling system predicts a precise cooling performance by calculating its maximum heat transfer in 3% error compared with the experimental value.
