Patent ID: 7633980

Claim:
An apparatus for transferring thermal energy from a heat load, the apparatus comprising: a reservoir of phase change material in liquid phase (LPCM); means for delivering LPCM from said LPCM reservoir to said heat load; heat transfer means (HTM) for transferring thermal energy from said heat load to said delivered LPCM, said heat load HTM having an inlet to receive said delivered LPCM and an outlet to discharge said heated LPCM; means for splitting said discharged heated LPCM into a first LPCM flow and a bypass LPCM flow; a phase change material heat sink (PCMHS) containing bulk phase change material (BPCM), said BPCM comprising phase change material in solid form (SPCM) and in liquid form (LPCM), and comprising the same phase change material as said delivered LPCM, said PCMHS having an inlet to receive said first LPCM flow, said PCMHS adapted to direct said first LPCM flow into contact with said solid phase change material (SPCM) wherein thermal energy transferred from said first LPCM flow to said SPCM causes latent heating of said SPCM resulting in melting of at least a portion of said SPCM, first LPCM flow mixing with said PCMHS LPCM resulting in cooled LPCM, said PCMHS having an outlet to discharge at least a portion of said cooled LPCM; means for combining said discharged LPCM with said bypass LPCM flow, means for mixing said portion of cooled LPCM with said bypass LPCM to result in LPCM at a uniform temperature; and means for returning said uniform temperature LPCM to said LPCM reservoir.