Hydraulic and Thermal Performance Tests on a High Heat Flux Heat Exchanger withPAO as the Coolant

摘要

With new aircraft navigation, communications and countermeasures equipmentrequiring numerous data processing units, today's military aircraft is experiencing an increasing dependence on electronics. Furthermore, the power densities and ensuing waste heat fluxes of electronic chips are increasing as designers strive to improve processing speeds. One concept being proposed to meet the stringent cooling requirements of these advanced electronics is the High Flux Heat Exchanger, HFHE, developed by McDonnell Douglas. The HFHE consists of 20 Compact High Intensity Coolers, CHICs developed by Sundstrand and capable of handling 100 W/cm2 each and arranged in a grid on a SEM-E card. This translates into a total cooling capacity of 2000 W. The design point for the HFHE was to deliver 2000 Watts of cooling while maintaining electronics junction temperatures at less than 900C using polyalphaolefin in (PAO) as the coolant. The purpose of this effort was to determine HFHE hydraulic and thermal performance. Results were obtained for flow rates of 1.0 to 4.0 kg/min over a temperature range of -10 to 40 deg C and for heat loads up to 100 W. Using these results, pump size and the flow rates needed for sufficient thermal performance of the HFHE were estimated.