Towards the thermal management of electronic devices: A parametric investigation of finned heat sink filled with PCM

Abstract

This study presents the parametric investigation of a phase change material (PCM) filled plate-fin heat sink, used for thermal management (TM) of electronic components. Two-dimensional (2D) unsteady numerical simulations were carried out using the finite-volume-method. The plate-fin heat sink, which is acting as thermal conductivity enhancer (TCE), is employed with the PCM to improve the heat transfer enhancement. Two different volume fractions of 10% and 20% of plate-fin heat sinks with 10, 15 and 20mm fin heights were selected and RT-35HC is used as PCM to absorb the internally generated heat by the electronic components. A constant input power, to mimic the electronic device heat generated, was provided at the heat sink base and transient variations of temperature distributions, melt-fraction, phase-change field, temperature flow field and latent-heat phase were analysed. The thermal performance of heat sinks was further investigated using dimensional analysis and critical set point temperature (SPTs). The results revealed that a PCM filled plate-fin heat sink reduced the heat sink base temperature and improved the uniformity of PCM melting compared with a without fins but PCM filled heat sink. The lower temperature of heat sink base was achieved with the increase of fin height and number of fins for both volume fractions of fins. Compared with the 10% volume fraction PCM filled finned heat sink, the 20mm fin height of 20% volume fractions of fins showed better reduction in heat sink base temperature. However, the higher phase completion time during melting was predicted 20mm fin height of 10% volume fraction of fins. A reduction in melting time is obtained with higher fin height and number of fins.