NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION ON HEAT TRANSFER FROM A PHASE CHANGE MATERIAL BASED HEAT SINK WITH AND WITHOUT BAFFLES

Abstract

For cooling portable electronic devices, effective thermal management (TM) depending on phase change material (PCM) is used. To absorb the thermal energy that all such devices release, PCM is used in the heat sink. The aim of this study is to determine how to increase the charging period of PCM. This work reports the results of detailed numerical studies carried out to improve the performance of a PCM-based heat sink in the charging cycle using baffles. Baffles are horizontal plate-fin structures made of aluminium. Two numerical studies were carried out. The first one is a comparative studyon heat transfer from PCM-based heat sinks with and without baffles. The PCM used is n-eicosane. The second one is a comparative study of two PCMs, rubitherm and n- eicosane. And validation of experimental data is done. From the numerical study a heat sink with baffles filled with a 0.9 volumetric fractionof n-eicosane shows the best performance. Rubitherm filled in the heat sink without baffles shows the best heat transfer. The investigation of PCM-based heat sinks with and without baffles revealed that more than 51% of the temperature differential was caused by baffles.