International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407

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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ichmt

Management of electronic board temperature using heat sink containing

pure and microencapsulated phase change materials
Faezeh Rostamian a, Nasrin Etesami a, *, Majid Haghgoo b
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran
b
Iran Space Institute, 1459777511, Tehran, Iran

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In this study, the electronic board temperature management using heat sinks containing pure and micro­
Electronic board cooling encapsulated phase change materials (PCMs) was investigated experimentally. PCMs were selected based on the
Temperature management board critical temperature (80 ◦ C). Effect of heat sink configurations, pure and microencapsulated PCMs, volume
Heat sink
fractions of PCMs, and a wide range of electric power (5-18 W) in two states of fixed and pulsed power was
Phase change materials
Microencapsulated PCM
examined on the board temperature behavior. Results showed that the square 7fins heat sink has the best per­
Heating-cooling cycles formance compared to square 3fins and circular 12fins heat sinks. Duration times to reach the critical temper­
ature for stearic acid, lauric acid, paraffin as pure PCMs, and PX52 and GR42 as commercial microencapsulated
PCMs were 33, 31, 36, 32, and 26 min, respectively. It reveals that PX52 could be a comparable candidate to pure
PCMs. Results showed that the operating time increases with volume fraction of PX52, proportionally.
Consecutive heating-cooling cycles presented that the peak temperature for PX52 after heating range was lower
than that for pure PCMs in the same conditions due to the higher heat transfer rate, although PX52 had less latent
heat. Microencapsulated PCMs with many advantages can be good options to control the temperature of elec­
tronic components.

reliability [1,2]. Recently, a latent heat thermal energy storage system

1. Introduction (LHTESS) has received much attention for cooling electronic devices. A
phase change material can absorb and release large amounts of thermal
Today, due to the development and widespread use of electronic energy during the liquid-solid phase change process [3]. PCMs are
equipment, it is necessary to improve the heat transfer technology of classified into organic, inorganic, and eutectic materials based on their
electronic devices to ensure that the operation work of electronic com­ chemical structure.
ponents is in safe conditions. Because when electronic devices are used, Organic PCMs can be divided into two main subgroups: paraffin and
heat is generated in them, and this heat must be transferred correctly to fatty acids. There are many articles on the application of PCM to store
manage their temperature. So far, various methods have been intro­ thermal energy [4–7]. In these studies, different PCM types, thermal/
duced for heat transfer and cooling of electronic devices, including physical properties, PCM microencapsulation, phase change problems,
active methods (fan-assisted cooling, spray cooling, jet-impingement system issues, and their applications in various fields are discussed.
cooling, microchannels) and passive methods (heat sinks, heat pipes, In cooling electronic boards by using a PCM-based heat sink, various
heat spreaders, phase change materials (PCMs)). The main goal in all parameters such as the number of fins, geometric characteristics, the
methods is to increase heat transfer. Active cooling technologies may not orientation of heat sink, the amount of applied electrical power, type of
be preferred due to issues such as maintenance, noise, and vibrations. PCMs, and the volume fraction of PCM can affect the cooling behavior of
Some of these problems can be avoided by using passive cooling tech­ the heat sink. Arshad et al. [8] experimentally investigated the effect of
niques. In passive cooling, heat transfer/dissipation is not assisted by constant heat fluxes in different values (1.6 kW/m2 to 3.2 kW/m2) on
any external means. The passive cooling system is noise-free and has low the thermal behavior of paraffin wax as PCM. It was observed that with
maintenance when compared to active cooling techniques. increasing input power, the latent heating phase region becomes
Furthermore, passive cooling systems are preferred because of no shorter. Also, no phase change occurred in the heat flux of 1.6 kW/m2,
parasitic power, quiet operation, less heat dissipation capacity, and which showed that the heat flux of 1.6 kW/m2 was not sufficient for

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: netesami@iut.ac.ir (N. Etesami).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2021.105407

Available online 19 June 2021

0735-1933/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
F. Rostamian et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407

[3] theoretically and numerically investigated the heat sink behavior

Nomenclature that contains metal PCM in great thermal shock. The heat sink included
gallium with copper fins, and the various structures of the copper fins
Cp heat capacity in constant pressure [J/(kg.K)] were examined. The results showed that the use of copper is helpful in
k thermal conductivity [W/(m.K)] conditions of great thermal shock.
ΔH latent heat of fusion (kJ/kg) Kalbasi and Salimpour [17] conducted a numerical study to increase
Vs total volume of the heat sink (m3) the operation time of an electronic device and investigated the effect of
Vf total volume of fins (m3) increasing the horizontal fins of heat sink containing PCM. Some other
VPCM volume of PCM (m3) factors such as the number of chambers in the heat sink, the ratio of the
T thermocouples temperature (◦ C) dimensions of the heat sink, and the amount of PCM were also examined.
Tm melting temperature of PCM (◦ C) They showed that there is an optimal number of fins to reach the desired
R" contact resistance (◦ C.m2/W) situation. Also, they reported that changing the dimensions of the heat
A cross-section area of the heat sink (mm2) sink did not improve system performance. Wu et al. [18] prepared an
L thickness of heat sink (mm) electronic board using an expanded graphite matrix containing paraffin
V voltage (V) for heat management of electronic components. They compared it with
I current (A) an aluminum plate board and a finned aluminum board. They reported
P input power (W) that the graphite matrix containing paraffin had a higher heat storage
q heating power (W) capacity, a higher thermal conductivity, and an excellent thermal
management capability of electronic boards and other cooling
Greek symbols applications.
ρ density (kg/m3) Ali and Arshad [19] studied heat sink with circular pin fins and used
ѱ volumetric fraction of PCM n-eicosane as PCM in this study. An aluminum heat sink with different
σ uncertainty configurations and thicknesses with the variable volume fraction of PCM
was used. The results showed that the heat sink with a fin thickness of 3
mm had the most increment in safe operating time. Arshad et al. [20]
analyzed the performance of the cooling system using a heat sink con­
paraffin wax melting. In contrast, a rapid changing phase was observed
taining paraffin wax to investigate the base temperature of the heat sink.
for the heat flux of 3.2 kW/m2. Hosseinizadeh et al. [9] examined
In this study, the effect of fin thicknesses, volume fractions of PCM, and
temperature changes for three constant power values (25, 35, and 45 W)
various heat fluxes were investigated experimentally. They reported that
experimentally and numerically (2D and 3D model) for commercial 80-
the maximum operating time of this system is obtained for square fins
RT PCM. The reason for choosing this high power was to remove heat
with a thickness of 2 mm and in a volume fraction of 1.0 of PCM. Arshad
from the microprocessor by a heat sink containing PCM (microproces­
et al. [21] also experimentally investigated heat sink performance with
sors operate at high power). They stated that for high power levels, the
pin fins using n-eicosane and paraffin wax as PCM in 4 different con­
melting rate increases. Therefore, the melting period is shortened, and
figurations. The results showed that for n-eicosane at a fin thickness of 2
the melting process is transferred to a higher temperature.
mm, the best heat performance is obtained, while the best performance
Qu et al. [10] conducted the experimental work to cool electronic
for paraffin occurs at a fin thickness of 3 mm. Similar results were pre­
boards using a parallel hybrid heat sink saturated with solid copper and
sented by Ali et al. [22]. Ashraf et al. [23] investigated heat sink per­
pure paraffin wax. The results showed that a lower base temperature of
formance containing PCM with a square and circular configuration.
the heat sink was achieved in metal foam-PCM than the using pure
They used six different types of PCMs with a constant volume fraction of
paraffin. Wei and Malen [11] studied the rate of increase in thermal
9%, in the power range of 4 to 8 W. The experiments showed that the
conductivity of a system containing PCM combined with high thermal
circular configuration had the most efficient result for heat sink con­
conductivity composite meshes. They reported that PCMs are suitable to
taining PCM and the square configuration had the best results for heat
control generated heat energy and can be used in electronic equipment
sink without PCM.
with various applications.
Baby and Balaji [24] focused their research on improving the oper­
A comprehensive study on the performance of heat sink containing
ating time of the system by using different fins (pin and plate fins) as
PCM was examined numerically by Nayak et al. [12] by changing the
thermal conductivity enhancers (TCE). They found that pin fin perfor­
number of fins (2, 4, and 8fins). They increased the number of fins by
mance in increasing operation time is more than plate-fin in a constant
using an equal amount of PCM and constant fin thickness in each
volume fraction of PCM in the power range of 2 to 7 W. Fok et al. [25]
experiment. They found that as the number of fins increased, the base
investigated heat sink behavior with 3 and 6fins and without fin using
temperature decreased, but the melting time interval for 8fins was not
eicosane as PCM. They observed that a heat sink with 6fins had shown
different from 2fins significantly. Also, they observed that the greater
the best performance in increasing the operating time due to more heat
the number of fins, the higher the temperature uniformity due to the
transfer surface. Further research was performed experimentally by
better temperature distribution. Saha et al. [13] studied experimentally
Baby and Balaji [26,27] on heat sink containing PCM by changing the
and numerically the optimal distribution of fins in the heat sink. They
number of fins and the volume fraction of PCM. They studied the per­
used 36 and 9pin fins at a volume fraction of 8% of PCM (Eicosane) and
formance of heat sink using pin fin with the number of 33, 72, and
constant power of 4 W. Heat sink with 36pin fins containing PCM was
120fins for various volume fractions of PCM and reported that 72fins
able to control the board temperature in the lower amount of PCM due to
had the best performance at all power levels (5-8 W). Then the perfor­
the availability of a larger thermal conductivity surface. A similar result
mance of the heat sink with PCM (Eicosane) and without PCM was
was obtained by Gharbi et al. [14].
investigated [28]. In this study [28], three critical temperatures of 42,
Pakrouh et al. [15] reported that as the fin height increases, the
47 and 52 ◦ C were considered and the amount of increases in operating
performance of the heat sink increases because of an increase in heat
time was measured and reported in all three critical temperatures. Sri­
transfer rate. Mahrous [16] also performed an experimental study on a
kanth et al. [29] used a heat sink containing PCM with composite pin
heat sink containing paraffin wax as PCM and investigated the effect of
fins and reported that in optimal state, the operating time of the heating
the number and arrangement of the fins. The results showed that the
cycle was increased by 5% and the operating time of the cooling cycle
heat sinks included the PCM reduced the peak temperatures. Also,
reduced by 12%. Hu et al. [30] investigated the effect of melting point
increasing the number of fins improves heat transfer to PCM. Yang et al.
and volume fraction of PCM on the temperature behavior of a heat sink

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F. Rostamian et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407

with pin fins. The results showed that PCM with a higher melting point The heat sinks used in this research are made of aluminum (Al-
provided better control of temperature below the critical temperature. T6–6061) with the specifications mentioned in Table 1, which has 3
Increasing the volume fraction of PCM also increased the operating time. different configurations, including square arrangement with7 fins,
A review of the previous research reveals some limitations in using square arrangement with 3fins and a special circular arrangement
PCMs in controlling the temperature of electronic components, with12 fins. Fig. 2 shows the configurations and dimensions of the heat
including volume enhancement during the melting process, leakage and sinks. In each experiment, these heat sinks were filled with different
damage to the electronic component. The thermal stability of PCMs in volume fractions of PCM (The PCMs were pre-melted, then the molten
continuous and long-term usage is also essential. In this study, for the PCM was poured into the heat sink and was allowed to solidify freely at
first time, the possibility of using microencapsulated PCM in controlling ambient temperature for avoiding porosity) and the temperature
the board temperature is investigated and compared with pure PCMs. In behavior of hot plate and the heat sink was investigated. In this study,
microencapsulated PCMs, melting and freezing of PCM occurs inside a several PCM types were used [37,38] that characteristics of them have
shell, so no leakage is observed. been listed in Table 1.
Previous studies also show that paraffin has been used as PCMs for The PCM volume fraction, denoted by ѱ and defined as the ratio of
cooling the electronic board temperature in most research. In this study, PCM volume to total heat sink capacity, is calculated through Eq. 1:
lauric acid (LA) and stearic acid (SA) as fatty acids are used in temper­
VPCM
ature management due to the advantages of fatty acids such as ѱ= (1)
Vs − Vf
compatible melting/freezing behavior, the low supercooling, low vapor
pressure at operating temperature, thermal stability, non-toxicity, easy where Vs is the volume of the heat sink, Vf is the volume of the fins, and
access and high ability to store energy [31–36]. Also, the performance of VPCM is the volume of PCM.
commercial microencapsulated PCM (PX52 and GR42) is compared with In the experimental setup, the heat sink was fixed on the hot plate
pure PCMs. Furthermore, most of the research has studied the effect of using a silicone adhesive with high thermal conductivity so that the
the geometric parameters of the heat sink and fins and the behavior of generated heat is transferred to the heat sink with the lowest heat
heat sink in controlling the board temperature under constant electric resistance. The hot plate and heat sink were insulated using Teflon with
power conditions with low power levels (especially in experimental very low thermal conductivity to prevent heat loss. In order to study the
studies due to limitation in practical). However, many electronic com­ temperature behavior of the system, seven K-type thermocouples
ponents in actual conditions are permanently subjected to heating/ (temperature range of − 40 to 250 ◦ C) have been used in various posi­
cooling cycles, with on/off periods, so it is necessary to study the com­ tions of the system such as hot plate, floor, and walls of the heat sink.
ponent's temperature behavior in consecutive cycles using PCMs based The position of the thermocouples is presented in Table 2 and Fig. 3 for
heat sink. Therefore, in this study, in addition to constant power, pulsed 7fins heat sink. In order to have more accuracy in the experiments, four
electric power and heating/ cooling cycles of the board at high powers thermocouples T1 to T4, are used in the hot plate, and the average
up to 15 W have been investigated. In the present study, the scenario of temperature of these four thermocouples is reported as the temperature
on/off electric power has been selected according to a real electronic of the hot plate. Also, T5 to T7 thermocouples are installed inside the
device. In the following, the effect of type of PCM, volume fraction, heat sink to analyze the heat sink behavior. The temperatures measured
applied electric power level, and heat sink configuration on the man­
agement of board temperature in two modes of constant and pulsed
Table 1
electric power loads are investigated and compared.
Characteristics of materials used in experiments.

2. Experimental setup Materials Company k (W/ C (kJ/ ΔH (kJ/ Tm ρ(kg/

m.K) kg.K) kg) (◦ C) m3)

Experiments related to cooling the electronic board using the heat Aluminum – 180 963 289 660.4 2700
Stearic Merck 0.173 1.76 191.4 61–67 940
sinks containing PCM are performed through an experimental setup
acid
according to Fig. 1. This setup includes a DC power supply, hot plate Lauric acid Merck 0.147 2.018 182.52 43–45 870
(simulated with the electronic board), K-type thermocouples, heat sink, Paraffin Merck 0.167 2.8 173.6 56–58 900
PCM, temperature data logger, and a computer to read the information PX52 Rubitherm 0.2 2 100 49–53 650
sent from the data logger. GR42 Rubitherm 0.2 2 55 37–43 800

Fig. 1. Experimental setup.

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F. Rostamian et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407

Fig. 2. Types of the heat sink used in experiments, (a) 7fins heat sink, (b) 3fins heat sink, (c) 12fins circular heat sink (all dimensions in mm).

where R′′ is contact resistance, Tavg is the average temperature of T1 to

Table 2
T4, P is the input power of hot plate, A = 50 £ 50 mm2 is the cross-
Location of thermocouples in all three heat sinks.
section area of the heat sink, L = 2 mm is the thickness of heat sink in
Number of thermocouples Location of thermocouple the floor, and K is the thermal conductivity of aluminum heat sink.
T1 to T4 On four different sides of the hot plate Contact resistance for 7fins heat sink in two different powers is reported
T5 Heat sink floor in Table 3.
T6 Heat sink wall (10 mm distance to the floor)
T7 Heat sink wall (20 mm distance to the floor)
3. Uncertainty analysis

In order to investigate the reliability of the measurements, uncer­

tainty analysis is performed on the experimental data. All k-type ther­
mocouples are calibrated in the temperature range of 0–100 ◦ C, with a
standard thermometer and an accuracy of ±0.5 ◦ C.
A standard calibrated multimeter is used for the verification of the
voltage and current. To evaluate the repeatability of the experimental
data, some experiments were repeated at least three times.
The uncertainty in the power measurement (P = VI) can be calcu­
lated as [39]:
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
( )2 ( )
∂P ∂P 2
σP = ± σV + σI (3)
∂V ∂I

Fig. 3. Position of thermocouples in 7fins heat sink. where P is input electric power, V is voltage, and I is electric current.
Based on Eq. (3), the maximum uncertainty for power measurement was
by the thermocouples are recorded and sent to a computer using a data ±3.9%. Also, the maximum uncertainty for the measured parameters is
logger (Simex-MultiCon CMC-99) at an interval time of 1 s. Also, by a reported in Table 4. According to Table 4, the maximum uncertainty for
power supply (Unity DC Power Supply 30 V, 5A), various powers in the
range of 5 to 18 W were applied to the hot plate. Table 3
Total resistance between the hot plate and the heat sink can be Contact resistance between the hot plate and 7fins heat sink.
calculated by Eq. 2: Tavg (◦ C) T5(◦ C) Power (W) R"(◦ C.m2/W)

P Tavg − T5 55.2 50.4 6(no PCM) 0.002

= ′′ L (2) 55.2 50.7 6(55% vol.) 0.0019
A R +K
55.2 47.1 10(no PCM) 0.002
55.2 47.3 10(55% vol.) 0.0019

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F. Rostamian et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407

Table 4
Accuracy and uncertainty analysis.
Temperature (T) ±0.5◦ C
Voltage (V) ±0.01 V
Current (I) ±0.02 A
Input power (P) ±3.9%

all parameters was less than 5%, which implies the reliability of the
measured data.

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Constant power

Fig. 5. Temperature-time behavior of hot plate without PCM with different
In this section, heat sink behavior under constant heat load is configurations at different powers.
investigated, and the effect of various parameters such as PCM type, the
volume fraction of PCM, and different configurations of the heat sink on In addition, the circular heat sink with 12fins shows a better heat
controlling the base hot plate temperature as an electronic board are transfer rate than the 3fin square heat sink due to more number of fins.
examined. In order to investigate the effect of heat sink configurations in the
presence of PCM on the temperature behavior of the board, three heat
4.1.1. Effect of configurations of heat sink without/with PCM sinks were filled with the same amount of stearic acid and examined at
Fig. 4 shows the temperature behavior of hot plate with 7fins heat different electric powers. Similar results obtain for heat sink with and
sink without PCM during one cycle of heating-cooling in different without PCM in different configurations. The time to reach critical
powers of 5, 6, 8, 10,15, and18 W. In this experiment, a critical tem­ temperature for different configurations at different powers is illustrated
perature of 80 ◦ C is considered. As shown in Fig. 4, at all powers, the in Fig. 6. As seen in this figure, the 7fins heat sink has more operating
temperature increases during the time, and with increasing power load, time than the other two structures.
the temperature rises at a higher rate. It can be concluded by comparing Fig. 7 shows the transient variation of temperature at different heat
the slope of the heating section of graphs. Duration time to reach critical sink points with and without PCM under a complete heating-cooling
temperature for the powers of 5, 6, 8, 10, 15, and 18 W is 43, 21, 12, 8, cycle with an input power of 6 W. As seen in Fig. 7(a), the maximum
4.5, and 4 min, respectively. Since the temperature of the hot plate at temperature difference occurs between the base temperature (T5) and
high powers reaches the critical temperature in a short time, it is the hot plate (average T1 to T4), which is about 5 ◦ C. Based on Table 3,
necessary to use PCMs with suitable heat storage capacity and melting this temperature difference is mainly due to the contact resistance be­
temperature in order to increase the operating time or delay the time to tween the hot plate and the heat sink. Also, the temperature difference
reach the critical state so that the electronic component is not damaged along the fin height (T5 to T7) is low due to the high conductivity of
during operation. aluminum. Fig. 7(b) shows that the presence of PCM in the heat sink
Similar experiments were performed for a square heat sink with 3fins causes a delay time of about 1900 s to reach the critical temperature.
and the circular heat sink with 12fins, and temperature-time diagrams Also, the temperature difference between T5 and Tavg has decreased due
were presented with 7fins in Fig. 5 for electric powers of 5 and 10 W. As to PCM in sink cells compared to the sink without PCM (Fig. 7(a)). When
shown in Fig. 5, the time to reach the critical temperature for the power the PCM is melted in the sink, free convection heat transfer in the melted
of 5 and 10 W for square heat sink with 3fins is 30 and 6 min, respec­ phase enhances compared to the heat sink with air.
tively, and for circular heat sink with 12fins is 39 and 7 min, respec­
tively. However, for 7fins square, these times increase to 43 and 8 min, 4.1.2. Effect of different PCMs
respectively. The effect of various PCMs such as paraffin, stearic acid, lauric acid
Comparing three different configurations shows that the best per­ from fatty acids category and microencapsulated commercial PCMs;
formance is related to a square heat sink with 7fins. It is concluded that PX52 and GR42 for 7fins heat sink on temperature behavior of hot plate
the geometric structure and number of fins can affect the heat transfer at different constant power load is shown in Fig. 8. The volume fraction
rate. A 7fins heat sink compared with 3fins with the same geometry has of PCM was30% for all PCMs. Fig. 8 shows the temperature-time profile
more heat transfer and can be kept the temperature of the hot plate recorded by T1 to T4 on the hot plate as the electronic board. As seen in
below the critical temperature for a longer time than the 3fins heat sink.

Fig. 4. Temperature behavior of hot plate with 7fins heat sink without PCM for Fig. 6. Duration time to reach critical temperature for different configurations
different powers. of PCM-based heat sinks at different electric powers.

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F. Rostamian et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407

Fig. 7. Transient temperature behavior of 7fins heat sink, (a) without PCM and (b) with PCM (lauric acid) at the power of 6 W.

melted, a post-melting process occurs. Therefore, an increase in tem­

perature is seen due to the absorption of the sensible heat of the liquid
state of PCM. Also, Fig. 8 shows that with increasing power load, the
temperature rises with a higher rate, and the PCM melting period de­
creases. With increasing input power, the rate of energy absorption in
PCM enhances; therefore, the melting process increases, and the melting
duration time decreases.
Fig. 9 compares the effect of different PCMs on delay time to reach
the critical temperature with the non-PCM mode. According to Fig. 9,
the charge of the heat sink with PCM can delay reaching the critical
temperature and increase the safe operating time. Also, paraffin per­
forms better than other PCMs due to its high latent heat and suitable
melting temperature compared to the critical temperature (80 ◦ C).
Although stearic acid has the highest latent heat among the others, it
results in a shorter delay time than paraffin due to the higher melting
point (Table 1). Lauric acid has higher latent heat than paraffin, but the
low melting temperature of lauric acid causes the melting phase to start
earlier, and the melting period reduces. Therefore, the delay time for
reaching critical temperature becomes lower compared to paraffin.
Although both the melting temperature of PCM and its latent heat are
effective parameters, results show that the difference between melting
temperature and critical temperature is a more important factor in a
good PCM choice.
Although the two microencapsulated commercial materials, PX52
and GR42, had less latent heat than the other pure PCMs used in this
study, they performed a significant delay time, especially PX52. PX52
showed acceptable behavior in temperature-time diagrams due to
proper melting temperature (close to paraffin) and higher thermal
conductivity. PX52 has a silica shell, and its thermal conductivity is
higher than other PCMs (Table 1). Fig. 10 illustrates the temperature
changes versus the distance of thermocouples from the heat sink floor
using thermocouples of T5 to T7 for a constant power of 6 W. As shown in

Fig. 8. Temperature behavior of hot plate using a 7fins heat sink containing
various PCMs at different powers for a volume fraction of 30% of PCMs.

Fig. 8, at the beginning of the heating phase, a rapid increase in tem­

perature is observed (sensible heat region). By continuing the heating
process to the system, melting of PCM occurs at the phase change tem­
perature and the temperature remains almost constant at the melting
temperature during the melting time or increases very slowly. The heat
generated in the board in this period is absorbed as latent heat. The high
latent heat of the PCM causes a delay in the time operation, which is
considered an advantage and allows the electronic component to oper­
Fig. 9. Time to reach the critical temperature for different PCMs at 30% vol.
ate for a longer time with safe conditions. After the PCM is completely of PCM.

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F. Rostamian et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407

Fig. 12. Duration time to reach critical temperatures for different PCMs at
Fig. 10. The trend of PCM temperature variations relative to the distance from
different volume fractions.
the heat sink floor.

PX52 compared to other PCMs, this microencapsulated PCM showed

Fig. 10, the trend of PX52 temperature variations relative to the distance
comparable performance. Therefore, microencapsulated PX52 with ad­
from the heat sink floor (as a temperature gradient (dTdx )) is lower than vantages of no leakage and high thermal stability and heat transfer rate
the other samples. According to Fourier's law (Aq = k dT
dx ), for constant can be used to control the board temperature by selecting appropriate
heat flux, temperature gradient (dTdx ) is proportional to the inverse of volume fraction.
thermal conductivity (1/k). Lauric acid has the lowest thermal con­
ductivity (Table 1), so the temperature gradient for lauric acid is higher
than others. PX52 has the highest thermal conductivity. Therefore, the 4.2. Pulsed electric power and performance of PCM-based heat sink in
temperature gradient for PX52 is less than other PCMs. Obtained results controlling the board temperature
show that PX52 can be a good candidate to control the temperature of
electronic components because of higher thermal conductivity, no In most electronic equipment, the component undergoes specific on-
leakage, no waste of PCM, less volume change, and no damage to the off periods at certain intervals. In this study, an electronic board used in
component during the phase change. electronic space equipment has been simulated as a hot plate so that the
hot plate turns on at the desired power for 10 min and turns off for 80
4.1.3. Effect of volume fraction of microencapsulated PCMs min. The heating process is performed for 10 min, and after this period,
The effect of volume fraction of microencapsulated PX52 on the by turning off the power supply, the cooling process is performed
temperature behavior of the hot plate with 7fins heat sink was investi­ through natural convection for 80 min, then the cycle is repeated.
gated in volume fractions of 15, 30, and 55 vol%, and input powers of 6, To evaluate the cooling performance of the heat sink containing
8, and 10 W. It was observed that with increasing power, the melting PCM, the heating-cooling cycles were performed for several consecutive
duration time of PX52 and the operating time decreased, consequently. cycles at 10 W. The temperature-time data is illustrated in Fig. 13 for
Also, the melting area is extended with the volume fraction of PCM, and microencapsulated PX52 and other pure PCMs in Fig. 14.
then the operating time increased. The percentage of increase in oper­ As seen in Fig. 13, the temperature peak after 10 min of heating
ating time for the volume fraction of 55% in comparison to 30 vol% and period reaches 70.5 ◦ C for microencapsulated PX52 in the volume
15 vol% is 27% and 45%, respectively (Fig. 11). In fact, increasing the fraction of 30% and 63 ◦ C for a volume fraction of 55%. More PCM can
volume fraction of microencapsulated PX52 increased the heat storage absorb more thermal energy during its melting period and causes a
capacity, which caused more delay in responding to the board lower temperature at the peak. The repetition of the same heating-
temperature. cooling trajectory in consecutive cycles shows that the PX52 has good
Similarly, these experiments were performed for paraffin, stearic thermal behavior, structural and thermal stability, and its performance
acid, and lauric acid, and the results were compared with PX52. As in consecutive cycles has not changed. Also, in the cooling cycle, it is
shown in Fig. 12, the time to reach the critical temperature for paraffin observed that the heat sink with 30 vol% cools to ambient temperature
at all volume percentages is more than in other samples due to its high during 80 min (when the hot plate is off), however for a volume fraction
latent heat and suitable melting point. Despite the lower enthalpy of of 55% due to the presence of more amount of PCM, the duration time of

Fig. 13. Temperature behavior of hot plate with 7fins heat sink containing
Fig. 11. The effect of volume fraction of microencapsulated PCM, PX52, on hot microencapsulated PCM, PX52, in 4 consecutive cycles at the power of 10 W in
plate temperature behavior with using of 7fins heat sink at the power of 8 W. two different volume fractions.

7
F. Rostamian et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407

entirely solidified, and some lauric acid is still liquid). The plateau
temperature-time profile at the end of each cooling cycle indicates this
fact. This behavior is further problematic at higher heat loads (Fig. 14
(b)). According to these results, it can be postulated that high enthalpy
and low melting temperature PCM cannot be suitable for this type of
heating-cooling cycle. The PCMs with high melting temperature and
high enthalpies like stearic acid and paraffin will be more successful in
the heating-cooling cycle.

5. Conclusion

In the present study, the cooling of the hot plate simulated with an
electronic board was investigated experimentally by using PCMs-based
heat sinks. Different pure PCMs and microencapsulated PCMs were
used and compared with the heat sink without PCM. The results showed
that PCM selection depends on melting temperature and enthalpy, could
significantly control the board temperature below the critical tempera­
ture, and provides safe performance for the system. Duration time to
reach the critical temperature in the same volume fraction for stearic
acid, lauric acid, paraffin, PX52, and GR42, was 33, 31, 36, 32, and 26
min respectively for 7fin heat sink and 6 W heat load. It is postulated
that PCM with lower difference temperature between melting point and
critical temperature and higher latent heat has better behavior in con­
trolling board temperature. Results showed that microencapsulated
Fig. 14. Temperature behavior of hot plate with 7fins heat sink containing
PCM of PX52 could be a good option to control the temperature of
different PCM in a volume fraction of 55%, in 4 consecutive cycles at the power electronic components because of higher thermal conductivity, no
of (a) 10 W and (b) 15 W. leakage, no waste of PCM, less volume change, and no damage to the
component during the phase change period.
the latent cooling has increased. It caused a temperature difference of Investigation the effect of volume fraction of microencapsulated
1–3 ◦ C in the hot plate compared to the volume fraction of 30%. How­ PCM on the temperature behavior of 7fins heat sink in three powers of 6,
ever, these minor temperature differences did not affect the overall cy­ 8, and 10 W showed that with increasing volume fraction, the melting
clic performance as the microencapsulated PX52 in both volume area becomes extended, and the safe operating time increases. At the
fractions provided safe operating conditions for the electronic board and power of 8 W, the percentage of increase in operating time for the vol­
controlled the operating conditions below the critical temperature ume fraction of 55% of PX52 compared to 30 vol% and 15 vol% was
(80 ◦ C). 27% and 45%, respectively. Also, it was observed that with increasing
The transient temperature behavior of pure PCMs (stearic acid, lauric electric power, the melting region of PCM and operating time decreased.
acid, and paraffin) in consecutive cycles with the same scenario is Therefore, the volume fraction of PCM needs to increase with the
illustrated in Fig. 14. increased heat load.
As shown in Fig. 14, the temperature-time diagram for stearic acid The effect of different heat sink configurations on the temperature
and paraffin is close to each other during the heating cycles due to no behavior of the system showed that the number of fins and geometry of
considerable difference between enthalpies and melting temperatures. sinks has an essential effect on heat transfer rate and heat sink perfor­
The maximum peak temperature for these two PCMs is 65 ◦ C at 10 W mance, consequently.
and 76 ◦ C at 15 W, which in both cases was lower than the critical Experiments of consecutive heating-cooling cycles with a specific
temperature. scenario of 10 min of heating and 80 min of cooling showed that the
Comparing Figs. 13 with 14(a) shows that the peak temperature of microencapsulated PX52 as a new PCM candidate in this work had good
microencapsulated PX52 is 2 ◦ C lower than stearic acid and paraffin at thermal stability and good performance in controlling the board tem­
the same volume fraction and heat load. Even though the enthalpy of perature. The cyclic behavior of other PCMs used in this study (stearic
stearic acid and paraffin is much more than the microencapsulated acid, lauric acid, and paraffin) showed that thermal conductivity in
sample. It can be due to the silica material as the shell of micro­ addition to the PCM melting temperature and latent heat enthalpy could
encapsulated PCM, which has a higher thermal conductivity than the have a significant on the temperature-time diagram and board temper­
organic PCMs and higher surface area of microencapsulated that en­ ature management. Furthermore, the results showed that high enthalpy
hances heat transfer rate, consequently. This result is a great advantage and low melting temperature PCM like lauric acid could not be suitable
for using microencapsulated PCM in electronic board cooling because it for the heating-cooling cycle, especially for high electric power and a
has no leakage and has acceptable temperature behavior to manage the short period of cycles.
board temperature.
Fig. 14(a) shows that lauric acid had a lower melting point than Declaration of Competing Interest
stearic acid and paraffin. Therefore, lauric acid shows a much lower
peak temperature. However, with the increase in the number of cycles, The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
this peak temperature has increased about 6 ◦ C. Increment in peak interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
temperature for Fig. 14(b) reaches 16 ◦ C under 15 W heat load. Due to the work reported in this paper.
the high enthalpy of lauric acid and its low melting point, this PCM
cannot reach ambient temperature (33 ◦ C) during the cooling period (80
Acknowledgment
min) when the hot plate is off, and in some cooling cycles, the temper­
ature of the PCM is 6 ◦ C higher than ambient temperature. In fact, lauric
The partial financial support from the Iran Space Institute (ISI)
acid is still in its latent cooling zone as the next cycle begins (PCM is not
during the research is gratefully acknowledged.

8
F. Rostamian et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407

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