Application of Phase Change Material in Sustainable Cooling of Data Centers

Abstract

The ever increasing information technology heat load and data center cooling energy are the main reasons to investigate the performance of microencapsulated phase change slurry over other heat transfer fluids. Microencapsulated phase change slurry is dispersion where the phase change material, microencapsulated by a polymeric capsule, is dispersed in water. Compared to water, these new fluids have a higher heat capacity during phase change and a possible enhancement, as a result of this phase change, in the heat transfer phenomenon. The composition of phase change material used in slurry greatly affects its efficiency, If not selected properly it can cause serious damage, e.g. agglomeration and clogging of pipes. The main objective of this work is to develop standalone pumpable microencapsulated phase change slurry that is able to withstand shear stresses of the pump and other course surfaces of pipe and pipe joints. In this study, experiments were performed, to determine performance of microencapsulated phase change slurry over conventional heat transfer fluids. After certain pumping cycles, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been done to analyze the conditions of shell material of polymeric capsule. Results obtained from SEM show that centrifugal pump is compatible with mPCM particle size upto 3 μm. It is true that selected mPCS have shown better performance over water in hot water bath in case of thermal storage. Also, closed loop final testing has shown that heat flux is about 2–3 times higher with mPCS than water.

Time-dependent structural breakdown of microencapsulated phase change materials suspensions

“…Water is the most utilized fluid for microcapsule suspensions due to its availability, cheap price, high thermal conductivity and large specific heat capacity. [2][3][4][5][6][7] The main problems of water based MPCM suspensions are the high floatation rate and the restricted usable temperature range. In addition, agglomeration of the microcapsules can cause problems such as increased viscosities.…”