Application of TCE-PCM based heat sinks for cooling of electronic components: A review

Generally, the commercial and industrial electronic devices are required to be operated under 100°C.Therefore, there is a need to remove heat effectively from these devices under different loading conditions. Till now, Phase Change Material (PCM) based heat sinks are emerging as one of the effective techniques for removal of heat from the electronic devices. However, the low thermal conductivity of PCM situates a hindrance to the development. Thus, current research focuses on improving the thermal performance of PCM using thermal conductivity enhancer (TCE). At present internal fins, metallic foams and nano particles are mixed with PCM to enhance the performance of heat sinks. These are called as thermal conductivity enhancers. This article reviews methodologically various papers on the methods used for enhancement of PCM performance in cooling of electronic components. The effect of various parameters influencing the performance of the TCE-PCM based heat sinks are discussed in systematic order. The performance of these heat sinks under constant and variable thermal load are also evaluated. Out of these three TCE, metallic foams in heat sinks provides a higher surface area to volume ratio, good thermal conductivity and considerable weight advantage.

[1]  K. Cen,et al.  Effects of melting temperature and the presence of internal fins on the performance of a phase change material (PCM)-based heat sink , 2013 .

[2]  Yogendra Joshi,et al.  Melting in a side heated tall enclosure by a uniformly dissipating heat source , 2001 .

[3]  G. Ziskind,et al.  Numerical investigation of a PCM-based heat sink with internal fins , 2005 .

[4]  E. M. Alawadhi,et al.  Performance analysis of an enhanced PCM thermal control unit , 2000, ITHERM 2000. The Seventh Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems (Cat. No.00CH37069).

[5]  Wei-Biao Ye,et al.  Numerical simulation on phase-change thermal storage/release in a plate-fin unit , 2011 .

[6]  Cristina H. Amon,et al.  PCM thermal control unit for portable electronic devices: experimental and numerical studies , 2003 .

[7]  G. Ziskind,et al.  Numerical investigation of a PCM-based heat sink with internal fins: Constant heat flux , 2008 .

[8]  A. Fleischer,et al.  The Experimental Exploration of Embedding Phase Change Materials With Graphite Nanofibers for the Thermal Management of Electronics , 2008 .

[9]  Y. Joshi,et al.  Energy efficient thermal management of electronic components using solid-liquid phase change materials , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Device and Materials Reliability.

[10]  P. Dutta,et al.  Heat transfer correlations for PCM-based heat sinks with plate fins , 2010 .

[11]  Avraham Shitzer,et al.  Numerical optimization of a PCM-based heat sink with internal fins , 2013 .

[12]  Mustapha Faraji,et al.  Cooling management of a protruding electronic components by using a phase change material heat sink , 2007, 2007 14th IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Circuits and Systems.

[13]  Ronald J. Warzoha,et al.  Energy storage and solidification of paraffin phase change material embedded with graphite nanofibers , 2011 .

[14]  S. Krishnan,et al.  Analysis of a phase change energy storage system for pulsed power dissipation , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Components and Packaging Technologies.

[15]  Wei-Biao Ye,et al.  Fluid flow and heat transfer in a latent thermal energy unit with different phase change material (PCM) cavity volume fractions. , 2012 .

[16]  Randy D. Weinstein,et al.  A direct comparison of three different material enhancement methods on the transient thermal response of paraffin phase change material exposed to high heat fluxes , 2011 .

[17]  Raya Al-Dadah,et al.  Experimental investigation of inserts configurations and PCM type on the thermal performance of PCM based heat sinks , 2013 .

[18]  Chakravarthy Balaji,et al.  Experimental investigations on phase change material based finned heat sinks for electronic equipment cooling , 2012 .

[19]  W. Tao,et al.  Passive thermal management using metal foam saturated with phase change material in a heat sink , 2012 .

[20]  L. Chow,et al.  Thermal conductivity enhancement for phase change storage media , 1989 .

[21]  J. Humphrey,et al.  Enhanced heat conduction in phase-change thermal energy storage devices , 1980 .

[22]  C. Balaji,et al.  Method to improve geometry for heat transfer enhancement in PCM composite heat sinks , 2005 .

[23]  Suresh V. Garimella,et al.  Thermal Management of Transient Power Spikes in Electronics—Phase Change Energy Storage or Copper Heat Sinks? , 2004 .

[24]  Arun S. Mujumdar,et al.  Application of phase change materials in thermal management of electronics , 2007 .

[25]  A. Sharma,et al.  Review on thermal energy storage with phase change materials and applications , 2009 .

[26]  Kai Sirén,et al.  Approximate analytical model for solidification in a finite PCM storage with internal fins , 2003 .

[27]  Sai Cheong Fok,et al.  Experimental studies on the use of a phase change material for cooling mobile phones , 2010 .

[28]  Amar M. Khudhair,et al.  A review on phase change energy storage: materials and applications , 2004 .

[29]  S. Krishnan,et al.  A novel hybrid heat sink using phase change materials for transient thermal management of electronics , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Components and Packaging Technologies.

[30]  Liwu Fan,et al.  Thermal conductivity enhancement of phase change materials for thermal energy storage: A review , 2011 .

[31]  A. Elgafy,et al.  Merits of Employing Foam Encapsulated Phase Change Materials for Pulsed Power Electronics Cooling Applications , 2008 .

[32]  Jing Liu,et al.  Keeping Smartphones Cool With Gallium Phase Change Material , 2013 .

[33]  Pradip Dutta,et al.  Studies on Optimum Distribution of Fins in Heat Sinks Filled With Phase Change Materials , 2008 .

[34]  Randy D. Weinstein,et al.  Transient Thermal Management of a Handset Using Phase Change Material (PCM) , 2002 .

[35]  F. L. Tan,et al.  Experimental and numerical studies on performance of PCM-based heat sink with different configurations of internal fins , 2011 .

[36]  Chakravarthy Balaji,et al.  Thermal performance of a PCM heat sink under different heat loads: An experimental study , 2014 .

[37]  Pradip Dutta,et al.  Analytical solutions for heat transfer during cyclic melting and freezing of a phase change material used in electronic or electrical packaging , 2003 .

[38]  R. Wirtz,et al.  Thermal Energy Storage Thermal Response Model With Application to Thermal Management of High Power-Density Hand-Held Electronics , 2012 .

[39]  Arun S. Mujumdar,et al.  A parametric study of phase change material (PCM)-based heat sinks , 2008 .

[40]  F. L. Tan,et al.  Cooling of mobile electronic devices using phase change materials , 2004 .

[41]  Tian Jian Lu,et al.  Thermal management of high power electronics with phase change cooling , 2000 .

[42]  R. Pakrouh,et al.  A parametric investigation of a PCM-based pin fin heat sink , 2015 .

[43]  Arun S. Mujumdar,et al.  Transient cooling of electronics using phase change material (PCM)-based heat sinks , 2008 .

[44]  Chih-Chung Chang,et al.  Heat pipe with PCM for electronic cooling , 2011 .

[45]  Chakravarthy Balaji,et al.  Experimental investigations on thermal performance enhancement and effect of orientation on porous matrix filled PCM based heat sink , 2013 .

[46]  F. Tan,et al.  Cooling of portable hand-held electronic devices using phase change materials in finned heat sinks , 2010 .

[47]  Chakravarthy Balaji,et al.  Thermal optimization of PCM based pin fin heat sinks: An experimental study , 2013 .

[48]  J. Murthy,et al.  A Two-Temperature Model for Solid/Liquid Phase Change in Metal Foams , 2005 .

[49]  P. Dutta,et al.  Role of Melt Convection on Optimization of PCM-Based Heat Sink Under Cyclic Heat Load , 2013 .

[50]  Yue-Tzu Yang,et al.  Numerical simulation of three-dimensional transient cooling application on a portable electronic device using phase change material , 2012 .

[51]  S. Garimella,et al.  Melting of Phase Change Materials With Volume Change in Metal Foams , 2010 .

[52]  Yu-Qi Xiao,et al.  Transient performance of a PCM-based heat sink with high aspect-ratio carbon nanofillers , 2015 .

[53]  Arun S. Mujumdar,et al.  Effect of orientation for phase change material (PCM)-based heat sinks for transient thermal management of electric components , 2007 .

[54]  Abdolrahman Dadvand,et al.  Numerical study of the melting of nano-enhanced phase change material in a square cavity , 2013 .

[55]  S. M. Sadrameli,et al.  Simulation of energy storage system with phase change material (PCM) , 2012 .

[56]  Phase change material based heat sinks and its geometry optimization for heat transfer enhancement , 2014, Fourteenth Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems (ITherm).

[57]  Dan Zhou,et al.  Review on thermal energy storage with phase change materials (PCMs) in building applications , 2012 .

[58]  Maciej Jaworski,et al.  Thermal performance of heat spreader for electronics cooling with incorporated phase change material , 2012 .

[59]  K. Srinivasan,et al.  A numerical model for heat sinks with phase change materials and thermal conductivity enhancers , 2006 .

[60]  Cristina H. Amon.  Spectral element-Fourier method for transitional flows in complex geometries , 1993 .

[61]  Brian G. Thomas,et al.  Fixed grid techniques for phase change problems: A review , 1990 .

[63]  S. Saha,et al.  Thermal Management of Electronics Using PCM-Based Heat Sink Subjected to Cyclic Heat Load , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology.

[64]  Francis Agyenim,et al.  A review of materials, heat transfer and phase change problem formulation for latent heat thermal energy storage systems (LHTESS) , 2010 .