Combined effects of inclination angle and fin number on thermal performance of a PCM-based heat sink

• Published in: Applied thermal engineering Vol. 159; p. 113956
• Main Authors: Yazici, Mustafa Yusuf, Avci, Mete, Aydin, Orhan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2019; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Configurations; Cooling; Electronics cooling; Fin number; Fins; Heat transfer; Inclination angle; Liquid-solid interfaces; Measurement; PCM-based heat sinks; Phase change materials; Phase transitions; Temperature effects; Thermal analysis; Thermal management; Thermal management; Electronics cooling; PCM-based heat sinks; Inclination angle; Fin number
• ISSN: 1359-4311; 1873-5606
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.113956

•Combined effects of inclination angle and fin number on the thermal performance are investigated.•Dynamic of the solid-liquid interface is photographed during the cooling process.•Increasing fin number beyond a certain value results a limitation on the performance.•Operating time can be extended by 83.4% as the inclination angle increased from 0° to 60°.•Heat sink with inclination angle of 60° and three fins performs the best performance. Combined effects of fin number and inclination angle on the thermal performance of a PCM-based heat sink with longitudinal plate fins are investigated experimentally. Five different heat sink geometries with one, two, three, four and five fins are tested under different inclination angles varied from 0° to 90° at a constant thermal load of 16 W for the cases of with and without PCM inclusion. N-eicosane is used as the phase change material. Simultaneous temperature measurements and solid-liquid interface imaging are made to evaluate cooling performance of each heat sink configuration. The results reveal that the inclination angle and fin number plays a critical role on the formation of convective cells in the liquid PCM domain and consequently on the heat transfer and operating time. It is disclosed that the heat sink configuration with an inclination angle of 60° and three fins performs the optimal result in terms of operating time.