Proposing the concept of mini Maisotsenko cycle cooler for electronic cooling purposes; experimental study

Abstract This paper proposes and conceptualizes the mini indirect evaporative cooler (MIEC) and its applicability as a local cooling process of electronic units such as Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), Central Processing Unit (CPU) and so on. Water is the main coolant in both direct evaporative cooler (DEC) and indirect evaporative cooler (IEC). However, contrary to the DEC, no water (humid) is added to the product air in IEC. That is why the cooled dry air can be safely employed for cooling process of electronic units. Maisotsenko type of indirect evaporative cooler (MIEC) is able to provide sub-wet-bulb air temperature (not possible in DEC or conventional IEC). In order to reach the aim of this research and evaluate the possibility of the provided idea, an MIEC cooler is designed and fabricated by 3D printer mechanism (with heat transfer area of around 64 cm2) and its cooling characteristics are investigated through a comprehensive experimental/theoretical study under different thermal, fluid flow and geometric conditions. Finally, the required considerations in real application of MIEC including proposed structure/dimensions and economic criteria are represented and discussed. The results show that the MIEC can be employed to reduce the temperature of the electronic units and enhance their efficiency if all operation/design parameters are selected in optimum values.