Cooling performance of an active-passive hybrid composite phase change material (HcPCM) finned heat sink: Constant operating mode

The present study explores a hybrid thermal management technology based on air cooling and hybrid composite phase change material (HcPCM) filled finned heat sink for cooling performance of lower to medium heat flux dissipating electronic devices. Two-dimensional numerical simulations are conducted to study the conjugate heat transfer effects of three types of finned heat sink: air-cooled finned heat sink, HcPCM-cooled finned heat sink, and hybrid (air-HcPCM) cooled finned heat sink. A heat sink with a constant volume faction of plate-fins is designed in all cases and simultaneous effects of hybrid nanoparticles and air are investigated to keep the heat sink temperature at safe operating conditions between 40–60 ∘C. The effect of air is incorporated into the heat sink by applying the convective heat transfer coefficient of hc = 10–100 W/m2.K which tends to create the natural convection and forced convection heat transfer characteristics. The heat flux is varied from 25–40 kW/m2 in the current study. The hybrid nanoparticles of carbon additives (GO and MWCNTs) are dispersed into the RT-35HC, used as a PCM, with a volume fraction of 0% to 6%. Transient simulations are carried out using COMSOL Multiphysics to solve the governing equations for PCM based conjugate heat transfer model. The results showed that forced convection heat transfer improved the cooling performance of the hybrid heat sink compared to natural convection heat transfer. The addition of nanoparticles further enhanced thermal enhancement and uniform melting distribution of PCM inside the finned heat sink. The hc between 30 to 50 W/m2.K shows optimized values for forced convection heat transfer operating conditions. The volume fraction of 2% of GO+MWCNTs nanoparticles in recommended or optimum concentration for uniform melting of PCM inside the finned heat sink.