Abstract
In the modern digital world, electronic devices are being widely employed for various applications where thermal performance represents a significant technical challenge due to continued miniaturization, high heat generated in the system, and non-uniform high-temperature causing failure. Phase change materials (PCMs) owing to the immense heat of fusion are primarily considered for thermal management, but their insulating properties hedge their applications in electronics cooling. Nano-enhanced phase change materials (NePCMs) have the ability to improve the thermal conductivity of PCM, decrease system temperature and escalate the operating time of devices. Accordingly, the current study focused on the experimental investigations for the thermal performance of three heat sinks (HS) with different configurations such as a simple heat sink (SHS), a square pin-fins heat sink (S pfHS), and Cu foam integrated heat sink (Cu fmHS) with various alumina nanoparticles mass concentrations (0.15, 0.20 and 0.25 wt%) incorporated in PCM (RT-54HC) and at heat flux (0.98–2.94 kW/m 2). All HSs reduced the base temperature with the insertion of NePCM compared to the empty SHS. The experimental results identified that the thermal performance of Cu fmHS was found to be superior in reducing base temperature and enhancing working time at two different setpoint temperatures (SPTs). The maximum drop in base temperature was 36.95%, and a 288% maximum working time enhancement was observed for Cu fmHS. Therefore, NePCMs are highly recommended for the thermal management of the electronic cooling system.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 8416 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Energies |
Volume | 15 |
Issue number | 22 |
Early online date | 10 Nov 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 10 Nov 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Funding Information:
The authors extend their appreciation to King Saud University for funding this work through Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP-2022R426), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Keywords
- copper foam
- heat flux
- nano-enhanced phase change material
- simple heat sink
- square pin-fin heat sink
- thermal management