Experimental study on active disturbance rejection temperature control of a mechanically pumped two-phase loop. (September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Chengbin; Li, Guanru; Sun, Li; Chen, Yongping
• Is Part Of: International journal of refrigeration. Volume 129(2021)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 10
• Publication Date: 2021-09
• Subjects: Evaporator -- Two-phase loop -- ADRC -- Temperature control; Boucle de refroidissement disphasique -- Commande par rejet actif de perturbations -- Régulation de la température; Refrigeration and refrigerating machinery -- Periodicals; 621.56
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2021.04.038
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0140-7007

Abstract

Highlights: l A pumped two-phase cooling loop via microchannel boiling is fabricated. l Control structure of two-phase cooling loop is developed and certified. l Active disturbance rejection temperature control is superior for two-phase loop. l The optimal flow rate and subcooling degree are experimentally determined. l The curve of microchannel wall temperature with flow rate is like a character "v". Abstract: High-heat-flux heat removal is critical for the long-term safety of the high-power electronic device. However, the precise and uniform temperature control of the device is challenging due to various nonlinearities, couplings and disturbances. To this end, active disturbance rejection controller (ADRC), hybrid with an auxiliary feed-forward flow rate controller and an auxiliary subcooling degree controller, is introduced in this paper for the wall temperature control of a microchannel mechanically pumped two-phase cooling loop. First, the optimal flow rate in terms of the heating power is identified to minimize the temperature level and variance. The relative curves between the flow rate and heating power are like character 'v' which are used as a feed-forward law for the flow rate regulation. Second, the reference of the sub-cooling degree is determined based on the closed-loop control of the preheater to get a uniform temperature field with least variance. Finally, ADRC is used in the primary loop to control the average wall temperature. The experimental results indicate the efficiency of thermal control for two-phase cooling loop via combination of primary and auxiliary loop. In addition, ADRC performs better in both temperature tracking and disturbance rejection when compared with the conventional PI controller, with superiority in terms of faster tracking and stronger robustness to disturbances and couplings.