Thermal Performance of a Heat Sink with Nanoparticles Integrated in a Phase Change Material

In order to improve the cooling of electronic devices, in this paper we investigate the performance of a passive cooling system of electronic equipment. The effect of adding nanoparticles to phase change material (PCM) on the performance of the system has been studied. In addition, the effects of the number of fins and their thickness on the phase change heat transfer process and the optimal configuration parameters of the PCM-based heat sink are evaluated. An optimal configuration of a rectangular enclosure with fins and a phase change material (PCM) based heat sink is determined to extend the safe operation time and keep the temperature of the electronic device in a safe range. The results show that the addition of fins has a significant impact on the heat transfer during the phase change of PCM. Moreover, the four-finned heat sink has a lower base temperature compared to the other cases with a high enhancement rate. On the other hand, compared to the case of PCM alone, the addition of copper nano-particles in the PCM has a little significant effect on the heat sink base temperature.