Heat transfer enhancement of round pin heat sinks using N-eicosane as PCM: an experimental study

This experimental work investigates the combination of phase change material (PCM) with thermal storage units to combat excessive heat generation in high application hand-held conveniences. Four heat sink configurations including a no fin and three pin-fin arrays having pin diameters of 2mm, 3mm and 4mm respectively are tested using four discreet volume fractions (0.0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9) of n-eicosane as PCM under heavy usage power levels of 5-7W. Round pins, made in aluminum, are incorporated in 9% volume percentage of sink's bulk to act as thermal conductivity enhancer (TCE) in heat sinks. Parametric probe involved the impact of n-eicosane volume fractions, spatial variation of temperature, Fourier number (Fo), enhancement ratio, Modified Stephan number (Ste*), heat capacity as well as thermal conductance to provide for insights on superior thermal performance for distinct operating conditions of the hand-held. The outturns proclaimed that increasing volume fractions of PCM result in increased service time of the heat sinks. Effect of pin-fin configurations were found to be negligible on spatial temperature variation. Amongst all heat sinks, 3mm pin-fin arrangement resulted in highest enhancement ratio, heat capacity & thermal conductance for all volume fractions of n-eicosane, thereby, demonstrated best thermal conduct of all four sink arrays.