doi: 10.3850/978-981-08-7614-2_IMPRES070

ABSTRACT

Designing of a phase change material (PCM)-based heat sink under cyclic loading is a critical issue. For cyclic operation, it is required that the fraction of the PCM melting during the heating period should completely solidify back during the cooling period, in order that that TSU can be operated for an unlimited number of cycles. Accordingly, studies are carried out to find the parameters which could influence the behaviour of PCM under cyclic loading. A few key parameters are identified, viz. duration of cooling period, heat transfer coefficient, h, and cooling surface area, A. The required heat transfer coefficient or the required cooling period for complete re-solidification for infinite cyclic operation is found to be unrealistic ally high with air cooling from the surface of a conventional PCM-based heat sink. To overcome this problem, a new design is proposed in which A is high and h can be controlled. With this arrangement, the enhanced area provided for cooling keeps the h requirement within a realistic limit. This cooling method developed is categorized as a combination of active and passive cooling techniques. Analytical and numerical investigations are carried out to evaluate the thermal performance of this modified PCM-based heat sink in comparison to the ones with conventional designs. It is found that the performance of new PCM-based heat sink is superior to that of the conventional one.

Keywords: Electronics cooling, Cyclic loading, Phase Change Material (PCM), Heat sink.

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