Enhanced Heat Transport in Environmental Systems Using Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials

The thermal management of avionic environmental systems is a growing concern to engineers. Increased heating loads and systems weight coupled with reduced volume present challenging problems to designers. This paper will outline a methodology for enhanced heat transport and storage that uses a new two-component fluid mixture consisting of a microencapsulated phase change material (microPCM) for enhanced latent heat transport. SBIR investigations for NASA, USAF, SDIO, and NSF since 1983 have demonstrated the effectiveness of this novel coolant in significantly enhancing the carrier fluid's effective thermal capacitance, increasing the exchanger heat transfer coefficient, providing essentially isothermal heat transport, and reducing pumping power requirements.