Phase change materials (PCMs) use latent heat to store a large amount of thermal energy over a narrow temperature range. While PCMs are commonly used for thermal storage applications, they may also be used to dampen large pulsed heat loads, which are commonly generated by high-power electronics and direct-energy weapons. During a pulse, the PCM absorbs some of the large heat load, and between pulses the heat is dissipated to a cooling system, which minimizes the instantaneous heat load applied to the cooling system, reducing its physical size and power consumption.
To minimize the size of a PCM heat exchanger, a simple computational model that can capture the transient thermal response of a flat plate PCM heat exchanger in a vapor compression cooling system with a pulsed heat load was developed. Using this model, the effect of PCM thermal conductivity, melt temperature, and latent heat on the size of the PCM heat exchanger was studied. PCM thermal conductivity and melt temperature had the greatest impact on the PCM heat exchanger size. The ideal PCM heat exchanger would contain relatively high thermal conductivity PCM with a melt temperature close to the desired heat source temperature.
