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

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.