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.

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Notes on contributors

Muthamil Selvan Nedumaran

Muthamil Selvan Nedumaran is a research scholar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering from CSI College of Engineering, The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu in 2014 and obtained his Master’s degree in Energy Engineering from PSG College of Engineering, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu in 2018. His research interests include numerical simulations, fluid flow and heat transfer in phase change materials, and experimental heat transfer. Currently carrying out research in the area of heat transfer through phase change materials under the supervision of Dr. N. Gnanasekaran.

Nagarajan Gnanasekaran

Nagarajan Gnanasekaran is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering (2002) from Bharathidasan University and obtained his Master of Engineering in Thermal Engineering (2006) from Government College of Technology, Coimbatore and Ph.D. (2012) from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai. His research interests include computational inverse problems, bio-heat transfer, stochastic modeling techniques, experimental and numerical heat transfer, hybrid optimization, heat and fluid flow in porous media.