Experimental investigations on thermal performance enhancement and effect of orientation on porous matrix filled PCM based heat sink

Thermal performance in terms of enhancement ratios and the effect of orientation of a copper porous matrix filled phase change material (PCM) based heat sink are experimentally studied in this paper. N-eicosane is used as the phase change material. A copper open cell metal foam, press fitted into an aluminium casing is the thermal conductivity enhancer. In PCM based heat sinks, low thermal conductivity associated with PCMs makes the use of enhancement techniques inevitable for better thermal performance. A plate heater with an overall dimension of 60×42mm2 with 2mm thickness is used to mimic the heat generation in electronic chips. The effect of orientation of the heat sink on thermal performance is studied by developing a tracking system, capable of placing the heat sink at any specified orientation. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.