Influence of Inlet Configurations on the Refrigerant Distribution of a Dual Cold-Plate System

Abstract

This study examines the refrigerant distribution of a dual cold-plate system subject to the influence of heating load and inlet configurations. Three inlet configurations, namely, uniformly divided, side-entrance, and inlet inclination, are examined. For an unequal heating load for both uniformly divided and side-entrance configurations, it is found that the distribution of mass flow rate subject to the influence of heating load is strongly related to the outlet states of the two cold plates. For the condition where one of the cold plates is in a superheated state while the other is in a saturated state, the mass flow rate pertaining to a fixed heating load is lower than that of a smaller heating load, and the difference increases significantly when the heating load gets smaller. For the condition where both outlet states of cold plate are at superheated states, the mass flow rate for the fixed heating load is about the same for the uniformly divided configuration and is marginally higher than that of the smaller heating load at the side-entrance configuration. The inlet inclination has a moderate influence on the flow distribution; the difference in mass flow rate is as large as 15% when the inclination angle is 10 degrees.