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ScienceDirect
Procedia Technology 25 (2016) 1182 – 1190

Global Colloquium in Recent Advancement and Effectual Researches in Engineering, Science and
Technology (RAEREST 2016)

Thermal Performance Evaluation of a Phase Change Material Based

Heat Sink : A Numerical Study

Jesto Thomasa, P.V.S.S. Srivatsab, Ramesh Krishnan Sc, Rajesh Babyd*

a
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering Adoor, Kerala - 691551, India
b
Engineer, GE Aviation, Bangalore, India
a
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering ,Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology (Govt. Engg. College), Kottayam, India
d
Associate Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, St. Joseph’s College of Engineering and Technology, Palai -686 579, Kerala, India

Abstract

This paper numerically investigates the thermal performance of a portable electronic device using PCM based heat sink. The
phase change material used in the present study is n-eicosane with a melting point of 36.50C. Considering the current trend in
portable electronic devices, a group of smart phones were taken and an average dimension was selected for designing a
PCM based heat sink. A constant heat flux is provided at the heat sink bottom for simulating the heat generation by the
electronic circuit board. Numerical analysis were performed for a constant heat input of 4 to 6 W in steps of 0.5 W on this heat
sink to study its effect in conjunction with PCM in the efficient cooling of these devices. The effect of natural convention within
the melt is also discussed in this paper . All the numerical computations were performed using ANSYS FLUENT 14.0.

©©2016
2015TheTheAuthors. Published
Authors. by Elsevier
Published Ltd. Ltd.
by Elsevier This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of RAEREST 2016.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of RAEREST 2016
Keywords:Portable electronic devices; phase change material; n-eicosane

Introduction

Power dissipation levels in portable electronic devices such as laptops, tablets and smart phones continues
to increase due to high power applications such as media, gaming, and increased functionality associated with the

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9447921482.

E-mail address:[email protected]

2212-0173 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of RAEREST 2016
doi:10.1016/j.protcy.2016.08.237
 Jesto Thomas et al. / Procedia Technology 25 (2016) 1182 – 1190 1183

use of internet. The heat generated by this electronic circuitry must be dissipated in order to prevent immediate
failure and improve long term reliability. Portable electronic devices at present are available with increased
functionality and compactness. The compactness of these devices with more features has not only increased the
power density, but also decreased the external available surface area required for dissipation of heat. In order to
overcome this problem, some effective cooling strategies are needed. Application of active cooling techniques is
limited considering cost, size, power consumption, reliability, weight and noise. In order to develop advanced
cooling techniques that can function efficiently, phase change material (PCM) based heat sinks have been widely
investigated in the recent times. Phase change materials absorb a large amount of energy during their phase
transformation while maintaining isothermal conditions and this has been the major motivation for their use in many
applications. PCMs have been employed for applications involving cooling of portable devices like mobile
phones, reducing the junction temperatures in high power electronic packages and as panels for lining the
military vehicles operating in the desert conditions.

The performance of PCM based approaches to thermal solutions has been extensively studied
experimentally and numerically for the last few decades. Tan and Tso [1] conducted experimental studies on the
cooling of mobile electronic devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and wearable computers, using a
heat storage unit (HSU) filled with PCM, n-eicosane inside the device. They concluded that the use of HSU helps to
stabilize the system temperature to an allowable working temperature of 50 0C. Kandasamy et al [2] studied the
application of a PCM package for thermal management of portable electronic devices for obtaining the effects of
various parameters such as input power, orientation etc. From the experimental results it was found that the PCM
package can be effectively used for the transient cooling applications for electronic devices which are used
intermittently. The two dimensional numerical analysis conducted for the prediction of the temperature closely
agrees with the experimentally measured values. Kandasamy et al [3], experimentally and numerically, investigated
the potential use of the transient thermal control of PCM based heat sink placed on a quad flat package electronic
devices. They found that the thermal performance and melting rate increase at higher power levels until complete
melting of the PCM (paraffin wax) takes place. Saha et al [4] studied the role of thermal conductivity enhancers on
PCM based finned heat sinks and reported that the case with 8% TCE volume fraction of the PCM based plate or pin
fin heat sinks found to have best thermal performance. Srivatsa et al [5] conducted a three-dimensional numerical
analysis for phase change material based heat sinks equipped with thermal conductivity enhancers like aluminium
metal foam and crossed plate fins. The validated computational models are then employed to investigate the
feasibility of operation of the heat sink configurations under high heat fluxes. Yang and Wang [6] numerically
simulated the cooling application of portable hand held electronic devices with a constant and uniform volumetric
heat generation using a phase change material within a closed system. The main focus is on transient surface
temperature behaviours at different power levels, various orientations at charge and discharge modes. Baby and
Balaji [7] optimized the thermal performance of pin fin heat sinks using genetic algorithm coupled with artificial
neural networks. Hosseinizadeh et al [8] conducted experimental and numerical investigations of PCM based heat
sinks with various internal fin configurations. It is found that increasing the number of fins and height of fin resulted
in a significant increase in the thermal performance. Also observed that increasing the fin thickness have only a
marginal improvement in the thermal performance. Zhao et al [9] attained a reduction of more than half in the
solidification time with the use of metal foams.

It is a fact that lot of numerical and experimental works are already carried out to evaluate the significance
of PCM based heat sinks and thermal management of electronic equipment. But a three dimensional numerical
analysis, that too taking the average dimensions of smart phones available in the market at present using PCM based
heat sink were scarce in the literature. In the present study the dimension of the heat sink finalized considering a
group of smart phones currently available in the market. Numerical studies were conducted for the newly designed
heat sink for different input power levels. The effect of natural convection has been discussed with the help of
velocity plots. Time and grid independent studies are also performed for the new model. The numerical model is
validated with the experimental results [10].
1184 Jesto Thomas et al. / Procedia Technology 25 (2016) 1182 – 1190

2. Physical Model

The new heat sink is developed considering a group of smart phones currently available in the market. The
information about the smart phones and their dimensions are given in Table 1. After considering the dimensions of
Table 1. Dimensions of the smart phones considered in the study

Dimensions
Brand Model
(length x breadth in cm)
SONY Xperia C 14.1,7.5
IDEA Ultra 2 15, 7.1

MOTOROLA Moto G2 13.8, 6.8

ASUS Zenfone-501 14.7, 7.1

SAMSUNG Ace-GTS5830 11 , 5.5

SAMSUNG Galaxy-young 10.4 , 5.5

the smart phones available in the market, the average of these dimensions are taken for designing the heat sink. The
heat sink taken for the study has a base area of 130 x 66 mm 2 and has a vertical height of 25mm. The PCM is
placed inside a cavity of area 116 × 52 mm2 and extending to a depth of 20 mm from the top surface of the heat sink.
The heat sink was equipped with a slot with an area of 110 × 46 mm2 with a thickness of 2 mm to
accommodate an electric heater. The physical model of the newly designed heat sink is shown in Fig. 1. The
properties of aluminium and n-eicosane considered in the numerical model are available in Table 2.

Fig. 1. Physical model considered in the present study

Aluminium properties are assumed to be independent of temperature and the properties of PCM are assumed to be
same for the liquid and solid phase. The specific heat of n-eicosane is not constant in the temperature range 20- 800
C. It reaches values as high as 17312 J/kg at around 38Ԩ, and begins to fall after 39 0C to reach a minimum value of
1718J/Kg at 520 C as seen from the scanning calorimetry results[10]. Therefore, a piece wise linear function of the
specific heat of the PCM with respect to temperature was chosen to represent the variation. To form a piece wise
linear function, values of specific heat from 27 0C to 820C are taken at an interval of 10C.

3. Governing Equations

Melting of PCM is a moving solid liquid interface problem. The melting process of the PCM is modelled
using enthalpy-porosity formulation. It is a single domain approach where a system of momentum and energy
equations is solved in the entire physical domain. It includes latent heat as source term; velocity vanishes in the solid
 Jesto Thomas et al. / Procedia Technology 25 (2016) 1182 – 1190 1185

field. This model is used when the thermo physical properties of solid and liquid are equal.

Table 2. Properties of materials used for the present study

Material Property

Thermal conductivity(W/m k) 0.1505

Density(Kg/m3) 785
Specific heat(J/ kg K) ---
n-eicosane
Dynamic viscosity(kg/m s) 0.00355
Thermal expansion coefficient( K-1) 0.001
Latent heat of fusion( J/Kg) 237400
Melting point(0C) 36.5
Thermal conductivity (W/m K) 202.4
Aluminium
Density ( Kg/m3 ) 2719
Specific Heat ( J/ Kg K ) 871

Total specific enthalpy of the PCM is equal the sum of sensible heat and the latent heat.
Total specific enthalpy = sensible heat + latent heat
݄௣௖௠ ൌ ݄௦ ൅ ݄௟

Average specific heat of the PCM,

்

‫ܥ‬ൌ
‫׬‬௢ ‫ܥ‬௣ ሺܶሻ݀ܶ
்
‫׬‬଴ ݀ܶ

்
݄௦ ൌ ‫ ܶܥ‬ൌ න ‫ ܥ‬ሺܶሻ݀ܶ
଴ ௣
Latent heat is defined in piece wise function form as
If T > Tliquidus
்ି்ೞ೚೗೔೏ೠೞ
݄௟ ൌ ඌ ඐ ‫ܮ‬ If Tsolidus < T < Tliquidus
்ି்೗೔೜ೠ೔೏ೠೞ
If T > Tsolidus

Similarly, the specific enthalpy of aluminium heat sink is given by

݄஺௟ ൌ ‫ܥ‬௉ ܶ
The PCM medium is considered to be a porous substance with varying degrees of porosity at different locations or
computational cells. The porosity of any computational cell always acquires a value equal to its liquid fraction (f).
Consequently, when the whole cell region is occupied by the liquid PCM, the porosity of the cell is 1.0. Governing
equations are written in terms of superficial velocity which can be given as porosity times the liquid PCM velocity
vector. Superficial velocity is an artificial velocity calculated as if, the given fluid is the only one flowing in a given
cross-sectional area.
ሬԦ ൌ ߣܸ
ܸ ሬԦ௟௜௤௨௜ௗ
Where,
ܶ െ ܶ௦௢௟௜ௗ௨௦
‫ݕݐ݅ݏ݋ݎ݋݌‬ሺߣሻ ൌ ݈݅‫݊݋݅ݐܿܽݎ݂݀݅ݑݍ‬ሺ݂ሻ ൌ ቜ ቝ
ܶ െ ܶ௟௜௤௨௜ௗ௨௦
If T > Tliquidus
If Tsolidus < T < Tliquidus
I f T > Tsolidus
Continuity Equation:
ሬԦ =0
‫׏‬Ǥ ܸ
Momentum equations:
1186 Jesto Thomas et al. / Procedia Technology 25 (2016) 1182 – 1190

஽௏
ߩ ሬԦ)- ‫ ݌׏‬൅ ܵ௕ ൅ ܵ௠
ൌ ‫׏‬Ǥ ሺߤ‫׏‬
஽௧

Where,
ሬԦ ൌ ܷଓƸ ൅ ܸଔƸ ൅ ܹ݇෠
ܸ
For PCM, the source term Sm is identical to Carman-Kozeny equation employed for the flow in porous media.
ሺͳ െ ߣሻଶ
ܵ௠ ൌ ‫ ܣ‬ଷ ܷଓƸ ൅ ܸଔƸ ൅ ܹ݇෠
ߣ ൅ܿ

ܵ௕ ൌ ሾߩ݃ߚ൫ܶ െ ܶ௥௘௙ ൯ሿଔƸ

Where Tref is the reference temperature. For aluminium heat sink: Sb=0 and Sm =0.
Energy Equations:
For PCM,
డሺఘ௛೛೎೘ ሻ
ሬሬሬԦ ݄௣௖௠ ሻ ൌ ‫׏‬Ǥ ሺ݇‫ܶ׏‬ሻ
൅ ‫׏‬Ǥ ሺߩܸ
డ௧

డఘ௛ೞ డఘ௛೗
ሬሬሬԦ݄௦ ൯ ൌ ‫׏‬Ǥ ሺ݇‫ܶ׏‬ሻ െ
൅ ‫׏‬Ǥ ൫ߩܸ ሬԦ ݄௟ ሻ
െ ‫׏‬Ǥ ሺߩܸ
డ௧ డ௧
For aluminium heat sink,

డሺఘ௛ಲ೗ ሻ
ሬԦ ݄஺௟ ሻ ൌ ‫׏‬Ǥ ݇‫ܶ׏‬
൅ ‫׏‬Ǥ ሺߩܸ
డ௧
The presence of the mushy zone is assumed, even for pure metals, to facilitate a smooth transition
of velocity from a finite value to zero in the solid. The A in the S m term represents the mushy zone constant and it
can take any value in the range 104-107 .In the present study a value of 5 x 106 is taken for the mushy zone constant.
The liquid fraction is updated after every time step. The convergence criteria employed in this study are: 10 -6, 10-3
and 10-7 for the residuals on the continuity, momentum and energy equations respectively.

4. Boundary Conditions
The governing equations and the corresponding boundary conditions are formulated for the whole
domain including the aluminium heat sink and the PCM inside the cavity. The boundary conditions are
applied based on the experimental work [10]. Adiabatic conditions are taken for the outer and top side of the heat
sink.
Initial Conditions:
At t= 0
T = 300K and V = 0
Top surface:
ௗ்
(a) For Heat sink (Aluminium surface): ൌ Ͳat y = 0.025.
ௗ௬
ௗ்
(b) For PCM surface: ൌ Ͳ and V = 0 at y = 0.025.
ௗ௬
Side walls of heat sink:
݀ܶ
ൌͲ
݀݊
Where, n represents the normal direction to the heat sink outer wall surface.
Bottom surface:
ௗ்
(a) For aluminium surface surrounding the heater slot: ൌ Ͳ at y = 0.
ௗ௬
ௗ் ொ
(b) For aluminium surface in contact with the heater: െ݇஺௟ ൌ at y = 0.002.
ௗ௬ ஺್ೌೞ೐
where, Q is the power input from the heater, Abase is the area of the heater surface and kAl is the thermal conductivity
of aluminium.
 Jesto Thomas et al. / Procedia Technology 25 (2016) 1182 – 1190 1187

5. Result and Discussions

In order to understand the thermal performance of the heat sink, numerical analysis is performed for a
constant heat input of 4 to 6 W in steps of 0.5 W. In order to have a better understanding of the melting of PCM
inside the heat sink cavity, the contours of liquid fraction at a sectional plane at different instants of time at a
constant heat input of 6 W is shown in Fig. 2.
5.1 Time and grid independent study
For a heat input of 6 W and a mesh with a grid size of 21457 elements, the variation of liquid fraction with
time is compared for three different time steps of 1, 0.75 and 0.5 s. From Fig. 3(a), it is seen that, for time steps of
0.5, 0.75 and 1s, the liquid fraction is almost the same at any instant. Similarly, for the same heat input and for a
time step of 0.75 s, simulations were done with three grid sizes with 11920, 21457, and 32385 elements, the results
of which are shown in Fig. 3(b). It can be seen that a finer grid of 32385 elements yields liquid fraction
profiles similar to that obtained with 21457 cells. Hence a grid with 21457 elements and a time step 0.75 s are
adequate. All further numerical simulations involving this geometry have been performed on this grid for a time
step of 0.75 s.

Fig. 2. Contours of liquid fraction at different time instants

Fig. 3(a). Time independent study

1188 Jesto Thomas et al. / Procedia Technology 25 (2016) 1182 – 1190

5.2 Effect of various heat inputs

The effect of different heat inputs on the thermal performance of the heat sink filled with PCM is next
examined. The effect of heat load is examined using three temperatures; heat sink base temperature (T B), PCM
temperature inside the heat sink cavity (T i) and the heat sink wall temperature (T W). Fig. 4(a) shows the variation of
heat sink base temperature at different heat inputs from 4 to 6 W in steps of 0.5 W. Fig. 4(b) shows the variation of
heat sink interior temperatures. The interior of the heat sink is filled with the PCM, n-eicosane.

Fig. 3(b). Grid independent study

Fig. 4(a). Variation of base temperature at different heat inputs

 Jesto Thomas et al. / Procedia Technology 25 (2016) 1182 – 1190 1189

Fig. 4(b). Variation of interior temperature at different heat inputs

It is seen that the PCM temperature is increasing from ambient to the melting temperature (sensible heating
phase), then the PCM continues to be at the melting temperature of 36.5 0C (latent heating phase). Once the latent
heating phase is over the temperature keeps increasing due to sensible heating. Stretching the duration of operation
of the latent heating phase is the key to prolong the operation duration of the portable electronic devices. A decrease
in the latent heating phase is observed with the increase in the input power levels.

5.3 Effect of natural convection

In this study, the maximum velocity of PCM inside the heat sink cavity was studied in order to quantify the
effect of natural convection currents on the melting process. The evolution of the maximum velocity of the PCM
medium in a heat sink with at different heat inputs are shown in Fig. 5. All the maximum velocity curves exhibit
similar features such as progressive increase in the magnitude of maximum velocity once the melting starts. The
peak maximum velocity in all heat inputs occur when the liquid fraction reaches a value close to its maximum value
(i.e. liquid fraction=1). A peak maximum velocity of 5.24 e-03 m/s is observed in the heat sink cavity when the heat
input is 6 W. In order to understand the variation of temperature for the entire heat sink in conjunction with the
PCM, contours of static temperature is taken. The contours of static temperature at 7011 s is shown in the Fig. 6.

Fig. 5. Velocity variation inside heat sink cavity at different heat inputs
1190 Jesto Thomas et al. / Procedia Technology 25 (2016) 1182 – 1190

Fig. 6. Contour of static temperature

6. Conclusions

A three dimensional numerical model for the PCM based heat sink subjected to a constant heat flux has
been developed. The temperature variation for different heat inputs, contours of static temperature and liquid
fraction contours are recorded. It is found that the PCM based heat sinks can stretch the operation duration of the
electronic equipment considerably in comparison with heat sinks without phase change materials. The maximum
velocity of PCM inside the heat sink cavity was studied in order to quantify the effect of natural convection currents
on the melting process. The peak maximum velocity for the various heat loads considered occur when the liquid
fraction reaches a value close to its maximum value (i.e. liquid fraction=1). A peak maximum velocity of 5.24 e-03
m/s is observed when the heat input is 6 W.

References

[1] F.L. Tan, C.P. Tso, “Cooling of mobile electronic devices using phase change
materials”, Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 159–169.
[2] Ravi Kandasamy, Xiang-Qi Wang, Arun S. Mujumdar “Application of phase change materials in thermal management of electronics”,
Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 2822–2832.
[3] Ravi Kandasamy, Xiang-Qi Wang, Arun S. Mujumdar, “Transient cooling of electronics using phase change material (PCM)-based heat
sinks”, Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 1047–1057 .
[4] S. K. Saha, K. Srinivasan, P. Dutta, “Studies on Optimum Distribution of Fins in Heat Sinks Filled With Phase Change Materials”,
ASME Journal of Heat Transfer 130 (2008) 034505/1 – 034505/4.
[5] P. V. S. S. Srivatsa, Rajesh Baby, and C. Balaji, “Numerical investigation of PCM based heat sinks with embedded metal foam/crossed
plate fins” , Numerical Heat Transfer, Part A, 66 (2014) 1131–1153.
[6] Yue-Tzu Yang, Yi-hsien Wang, “Numerical simulations of three-dimensional transient cooling applications on portable electronic device
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[7] Rajesh Baby, C. Balaji , “Thermal optimization of PCM based pin fin heat sinks: An experimental study”, Applied Thermal Engineering
54 (2013) 65-77.
[8] Hosseinizadeh, S.F., Tan, F.L., Moosania, S.M., Experimental and numerical studies on performance of PCM-based heat sink
with different configurations of internal fins, Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 28, no. 17-18, 2011, pp. 3827–3838.
[9] Zhao, C.Y., Lu, W., Tian, Y., Heat transfer enhancement for thermal energy storage using metal foams embedded within phase change
materials (PCMs), Solar Energy, vol. 84, no. 8, 2010, pp. 1402-1412.
[10] Rajesh Baby, C. Balaji , “Experimental investigations on phase change material based finned heat sinks for electronic equipment cooling”,
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