Comprehensive Analysis of Hybrid Heat Sinks with Phase Change Materials for Both Charging and Discharging Cycles

Abstract

Most of the studies investigated either charging or discharging process in a phase change material (PCM) based heat sink. In this paper, both melting and solidification of n-eicosane filled heat sink is studied numerically. The system filled only with PCM is unable to provide desired performance because of poor thermal conductivity of material. In order to enhance the response time, fins and foams are used in this study. Here, a PCM filled hybrid system of two cases is considered. For case 1, the heat sink with horizontal and vertical fins and for case 2, the heat sink with combination of horizontal fins and metal foams (aluminum) are employed. In case 1, no fin case is compared with rectangular fins and tapered fins. Results show that tapered fins are good for distribution of temperature within the system. In case 2, different filling heights such as 10 mm, 15 mm, and 20 mm with horizontal tapered fins are investigated. From the results, it is observed that the convection is delayed by increasing the filling heights. For solidification cases, 20 mm filling height foam performs better than all other cases. © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.