Metal foam reinforced phase change material for passive thermal control of multiple electronic components

IF 5 2区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, MECHANICAL

International Journal of Thermal Sciences Pub Date : 2025-09-25 DOI:10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2025.110329

Ibtissam Afaynou , Hamza Faraji , Khadija Choukairy , Ridha Djebali

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This study numerically investigates passive thermal cooling using a phase change material (n-eicosane) embedded in aluminum foam-based heat sinks with varying porosity and pore density (PPI) gradients. Simulations, conducted in ANSYS Fluent, assess different foam configurations and electronic component (EC) numbers. Results show that aluminum foam significantly enhances the thermal performance of the PCM-based heat sink, reducing the EC temperature by up to 26.92 %, shortening the melting duration, and improving the effective thermal conductivity by about 25 times at the cost of reducing the effective latent heat by 15.70 % compared to the pure PCM-based heat sink. A gradient in porosity further enhances performance, lowering the maximum EC temperature by 9.55 % (3.75 °C) due to an 86.52 % increase in the effective thermal conductivity of the PCM composite over the heat sink with constant porosity. However, the gradient in PPI has no notable effect on the cooling performance. Using multiple ECs stabilizes operating temperatures and improves thermal behavior. The study highlights a properly designed gradient porosity as a promising strategy for efficient passive cooling of ECs, especially when using three ECs with a lower heat production rate, rather than using one EC with three times higher heat spreading.

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用于多种电子元件被动热控制的金属泡沫增强相变材料

本研究利用相变材料（n-二十烷）嵌入具有不同孔隙率和孔隙密度（PPI）梯度的泡沫铝基散热器，对被动热冷却进行了数值研究。在ANSYS Fluent中进行了仿真，评估了不同的泡沫结构和电子元件（EC）数量。结果表明，泡沫铝显著提高了pcm基散热器的热性能，与纯pcm基散热器相比，其EC温度降低了26.92%，熔化时间缩短，有效导热系数提高了约25倍，有效潜热降低了15.70%。孔隙度的梯度进一步提高了性能，由于PCM复合材料的有效导热系数比孔隙度恒定的散热器提高了86.52%，因此最高EC温度降低了9.55%（3.75°C）。然而，PPI的梯度对冷却性能没有显著影响。使用多个ec可以稳定工作温度并改善热性能。该研究强调，适当设计的梯度孔隙率是高效被动冷却EC的一种有前途的策略，特别是当使用三个产热率较低的EC时，而不是使用一个散热率高出三倍的EC时。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Thermal Sciences 工程技术-工程：机械

CiteScore

8.10

自引率

11.10%

发文量

531

审稿时长

55 days

期刊介绍： The International Journal of Thermal Sciences is a journal devoted to the publication of fundamental studies on the physics of transfer processes in general, with an emphasis on thermal aspects and also applied research on various processes, energy systems and the environment. Articles are published in English and French, and are subject to peer review. The fundamental subjects considered within the scope of the journal are: * Heat and relevant mass transfer at all scales (nano, micro and macro) and in all types of material (heterogeneous, composites, biological,...) and fluid flow * Forced, natural or mixed convection in reactive or non-reactive media * Single or multi–phase fluid flow with or without phase change * Near–and far–field radiative heat transfer * Combined modes of heat transfer in complex systems (for example, plasmas, biological, geological,...) * Multiscale modelling The applied research topics include: * Heat exchangers, heat pipes, cooling processes * Transport phenomena taking place in industrial processes (chemical, food and agricultural, metallurgical, space and aeronautical, automobile industries) * Nano–and micro–technology for energy, space, biosystems and devices * Heat transport analysis in advanced systems * Impact of energy–related processes on environment, and emerging energy systems The study of thermophysical properties of materials and fluids, thermal measurement techniques, inverse methods, and the developments of experimental methods are within the scope of the International Journal of Thermal Sciences which also covers the modelling, and numerical methods applied to thermal transfer.