Experimental Study on Active Thermal Protection for Electronic Devices Used in Deep−Downhole−Environment Exploration

Abstract

Electronic devices are commonly used for exploiting and extracting shale oil in deep downhole environments. However, high−temperature−and−pressure downhole environments jeopardize the safe operation of electronic components due to their severe thermal conditions. In the present study, an active thermal−insulation system is proposed, which consists of a spiral annular cooling plate (ACP), a thermal storage container with phase−change material (PCM) and an aerogel mat (AM). The effect of the ACP’s structure, layout and working−medium flowrate on the heat−protection performance were experimentally measured; temperature−control capability and system−operating time were used as the criteria. The results show that the AM layer is necessary and that the inner−ACP case displays better thermal−protection performance. Next, a dimensionless temperature−control factor (TCF) was proposed to evaluate the trade−off between temperature control and the system’s operating time. Note that the TCF of the spiral ACP can be improved by 1.62 times compared to the spiral−ACP case. Since the lower flowrate allows better TCF and longer operating times, intermittent control of the flowrate with a 1−minute startup and 2−minute stopping time at 200 mL/min can further extend the system’s operating time to 5 h, and the TCF is 3.3 times higher than with a constant flowrate of vm = 200 mL/min.