Numerical study of PCMs arrangement effect on heat transfer performance in plate-finned heat sink for passive cooling system

Passive temperature control and thermal storage systems using phase change materials are widespread and have a high potential in modern technologies. This research deals with the computational analysis of natural convection melting in a multi-PCM thermal sink heated from an element of volumetric energy production. The influence of the geometric parameters of the system and the arrangement of materials in it is analyzed. Numerical modeling has been carried out using the finite difference technique. Governing equations for the mass, momentum and energy transfer have been written employing stream function, vorticity and temperature. Based on the obtained distributions of local fields for energy and mass transference and changes in the average temperature of the heater, it is shown that, despite the smaller surface area, separation by vertical flat fins provides lower temperatures and longer melting when the source is located below.