Mini Channel Evaporator as MAC Device for Laptop Cooling System

Abstract

Laptop computers are known for their compact features which lead to overheating problems. Along with its being compact, laptop computer developers are going for more advance components to be able to run advance computer programs making the laptop do much more which also adds more to the overheating problems of the laptop. Overheated laptops will lead to slower laptop performances, laptop failures and even damaging its components. This problem leads to the development of laptop cooling methods, from fans and blowers and other cooling methods. This study aims to develop a cooling system which involves an air-conditioning system, a Mini Air Conditioning System (MAC System). The key to this study is the fabrication of three(3) mini channel evaporators which has different inner hydraulic diameters but of the same surface area with an overall size and which is smaller than a laptop battery pack. The evaporator for this study was made from a copper block that was fabricated to produce fins and a groove for the refrigerant to flow through the evaporator. The inner hydraulic diameters for the refrigerant to flow through are, 1mm, 2mm, and 3mm. The overall heat transfer coefficient would be determined for each evaporator size. The study showed that the most effective evaporator for cooling the laptop was that of the 3mm evaporator and that using the MAC system is an effective way of cooling a laptop computer. It lowered the temperature of the laptop by 10.65 K versus the setup with no cooler at all and 8.01 K with the setup with a plain cooler. The study also showed that the 3mm evaporator has the highest overall heat transfer coefficient with 73.129W/m2K with a mass flow rate of 0.039 kg/s.