Heat and Mass Transfer

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-018-2389-0

ORIGINAL

An experimental study of PCM based finned and un-finned heat sinks

for passive cooling of electronics
Hazrat Usman 1 & Hafiz Muhammad Ali 1 & Adeel Arshad 2 & Muhammad Junaid Ashraf 1 & Shahab Khushnood 1 &
Muhammad Mansoor Janjua 3 & S. N. Kazi 4

Received: 3 December 2017 / Accepted: 16 May 2018

# Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018

Abstract
This experimental study determines and compares the thermal performance of unfinned and finned PCM based heat sinks. For the
analysis considering pin-fins as thermal conductivity enhancer (TCE), triangular configuration is considered. It is further classified
into inline and staggered pin-fin arrangements. Three popular variants of paraffin namely paraffin wax, RT-44 and RT-35HC are
incorporated as phase change materials (PCMs) inside the heat sink. The volume fraction of pin-fins and PCMs are kept constant at
9% and 90% respectively. The heat input at the base of heat sinks ranges from 5 W to 8 W. The results are presented in two different
cases, charging and discharging, and the analysis of temperature variation and comparison of fin arrangements in three different
heat sinks with and without PCM. Further the enhancement ratios are determined to quantify the thermal performance in operation
time of heat sink for passive cooling with the influence of PCMs and TCEs. The results suggest triangular inline pin-fin as the
dominant heat sink geometry and RT-44 as the most efficient PCM for passive thermal management of electronic devices.

Nomenclature T Thickness of the pin; mm

mPCM Mass of the PCM; kg
Abbreviations ψ Volume fraction of TCEs
TM Thermal management Nfin Number of fins
PCM Phase change material νPCM Volume of the PCM; m3/kg
TCEs Thermal conductivity enhancers VTCE Volume of thermal conductivity enhancers; mm3
COT Critical operational temperature q Heat flux; kW/m2
W Thermocouple across the wall of heat sink
H Thermocouple at the base of heat sink
T Thermocouple inside PCM
1 Introduction
Symbols
VS Total work space volume of heat sink; mm3
Effective cooling has become exacting with furtherance in the
Vfin Total volume of the fins; mm3
functionalities of portable hand-held electronic devices and
vfin Volume of the single fin; mm3
their shrinking sizes. Increased level of heat generation poses
H Height of the pin; mm
inherent danger to the delicate circuitry if not meeting the
thermal constraints of the operating electronics. Typical
* Hafiz Muhammad Ali methods of cooling to degenerate this heat subsides their per-
h.m.ali@uettaxila.edu.pk formance, reliability, and working span. Active cooling has
found applications in mobile devices [1–6] but due to increas-
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Engineering ing ambient temperature difference in compact designs, effec-
and Technology, Taxila, Pakistan tive electronic system calls for better thermal management
2
Fluids & Thermal Engineering (FLUTE) Research Group, Faculty of (TM) solution despite space limitations [7].
Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK In the past decade, widespread research on latent heat ther-
3
Department of Mechatronics and Mechanical Engineering, Higher mal management system (LHTMS) utilizing PCMs has been
Colleges of Technology, Dubai, UAEP.O.Box: 15825 prevailing to explore for their suitability as a cooling solution
4
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, in low profile scale electronics. Studies corroborate latent heat
University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia thermal energy storage to have precedence over sensible heat

storage systems on the grounds of compactness, higher energy
density and low energy losses to the surrounding [8–10]. Heat
sinks are TM hardware’s to limit the temperature rise of crit-
ical components of electronic devices from its peak to assure
reliability. Pin-fin heat sinks, acting as a thermal conductivity
enhancers (TCEs) technologies employing different configu-
rations of fins have emerged as one of the more attractive area
in passive TM applications because it exhibits a unique
cooling power and address space limitations. In addition to
the pin-fins, PCMs are also most suitable candidate to enhance
the performance of heat sink system due to their large inherent
latent heat absorption nature during phase transition. The ul-
timate purpose of all the techniques is to protect the devices
not to extensively overheat, damage and to remain in comfort
zone.
Setoh et al. [11] studied the charging and discharging
modes of PCM based heat sinks to explore its thermal char-
acteristics for mobile phones. Four different geometries of
aluminium made heat sinks, first without PCM and fins, then
3 fins and with 6 fins were examined at power inputs of 3-5 W.
The use of PCM and internal fins had stabilized the device
average temperature and that the melting rate had been re-
duced at increased power level. Saha and Dutta [12] conduct-
ed the research to determine the optimal volume fraction of fin
configurations inside the heat sink. Two types of fin configu-
rations (plate-fin and pin-fin) of 25mm height were selected
and n-eicosane was used as a PCM. Analysing different vol-
ume fractions of TCEs, 8% was specified as best. Similarly,
Pakrouh et al. [13] coupled Taguchi method to optimize pin-
fin heat sinks in terms of fin’s number, base thickness, height
and PCM percentage. RT-44 was used as a PCM and critical
temperatures of 50 C, 60 C, 70 C and 80 C were selected for
conducting analysis. The performance of 2mm thick fin was
found highest for 50 C and 4mm being for all the selected
temperatures. Base thickness of the fin had contributed less
than all other parameters. Mehmoud et al. [14] experimentally
compared the thermal performance of finned heat sink and
with inserting honeycomb structure. Overall six types of
PCMs were used in six different heat sinks of single cavity,
inline and cross fins, and with a honey comb insert for 3-5 W.
It was concluded that increasing fin’s number, inserting honey
comb and low melting temperature PCM at increased power
level prolong the operational time of heat sink. Lu et al. [15]
explored the effect of wider range of inclination angles of heat
sink from 0 to 90° under pulsated loads of 20 W and 40 W.
The thermal performance had increased with increasing incli-
nation angle. The optimal angle was found to exist between 60
C and 75 C. Nayak et al. [16] studied three types of heat sinks,
one with PCM distributed in porous matrix of aluminium,
other with pin-fin and plate-fin heat sink with respect to var-
iation in TCEs fractions, melt fraction and temperature differ-
ence within the PCM (n-eicosane). It was concluded that
inserting porous matrix in PCM had increased melt rate,
Heat Mass Transfer
thermal conductivity and the performance of pin-fins was
found better than plate-fins.
Partial embedded fins in PCM inside a rectangular enclosure
was investigated experimentally by Kamkari et al. [17].
Unfinned and finned enclosure were examined for 55 C, 60 C,
70 C temperature and inclined orientations of 0°, 45° and 90°.
Visually observing the melting process showed that melting had
started from fins surface because of vertical flow and chaotic
flow of liquidus PCM. Moreover, adding fins help in declining
Nusselt number and enhanced heat transfer. Levin et al. [18]
aimed on to obtain optimum PCM percentage with minimum
height of the system, small number of fins per unit width and of
smaller length ratios when designing LHTMS for electronic
devices. In conclusion, it reported that the optimum percentage
of PCM was dependent on fins number, length, input flux and
the difference between liquidus and critical temperature.
Fok et al. [19] performed their experimental analysis to
determine the application of PCM in hand-held electronic de-
vices. It was summed up that the combined use of PCM and
fins aided in effective cooling of electronic devices. The ori-
entation of fins was observed to have considerable enhance-
ment in discharging phase. Yang et al. [20] studied pin-fin heat
sink having elliptic, circular and square cross-sectional of fins.
For the inline arrays, round pin-fin had considerable influence
of pin’s density while none effect shown for square and elliptic
shape. Baby and Balaji [21, 22] carried out experimental in-
vestigation on n-eicosane and paraffin wax filled aluminium
heat sinks with 33, 72 and 120 number of pin-fin configuration
and 9% TCE volume fraction. Major inferences concluded
that lesser the number of fins, lesser the volume fraction and
hence least will be the latent heat phase of the PCM. It was
heeded that among no fin, 3 plate-fin and 72 pin-fin configu-
ration, the latter augmented the heat dissipation at most,
resulting in enhanced cooling of the electronic device. Other
instated that the extension in time taken for temperature rise is
best for 72 pins and high enhancement ratio was achieved for
low values of Stefan number and vice versa. An experimental
study was presented by Mahmoud et, al. [14], authors conduct-
ed study on parallel fins and cross fins cavities, results were
compared to honey comb structure. It was found that honey
comb inserts heat sink had about same thermal performance
as plate-finned heat sink but favored due to light weight.
Mahrous [23] tested six different types of heat sinks to
report the effect of fins number and arrangement on its thermal
performance. All heat sinks were of identical size (40mm-
length, 40mm-width and 30mm-height) but different in other
parameters. It was concluded that the parallel and crossed
arrangements of fins both had almost comparable perfor-
mance and the performance of all finned heat sinks was prom-
inent to unfinned heat sink. Hatakeyama et al. [24] carried out
their experimental and numerical analysis on transient cooling
module employing PCM and pin-fins. The thermal network
model of test module developed in the analysis was identified
Heat Mass Transfer
as effective design tool in TM of electronic packages. Zhou
and Catton [25] analysed total 20 different heat sinks numer-
ically and performance effectiveness of stream-line type shape
of pin-fin was highest among all and that of circular type
greater than the square type. Shadlaghani et al. [26] designed
three different geometries of triangular, rectangular and trap-
ezoidal fins with different cross-sections of perforation in its
centre to evaluate its thermal performance. Heat transfer of
triangular fin geometry was reported superior to the other
types and that increasing fin height/thickness ratio enhance
heat transfer rate. About perforation, square and circular per-
forated holes had greater heat transfer rate in comparison to
triangular type. Avci and Yazici [27] investigated the effect of
inclination angle on the performance of flat-plate n-eicosane
filled heat sink and concluded that inclination movement in-
creased the thermal performance heat sink.
At the present time, Arshad and his co-authors [28–32] sub-
stantiated parametric study on square and round pin-fin heat sink
arrangements with no fin, 1 mm, 2 mm and 3 mm for square
configuration and 2 mm, 3 mm and 4 mm for round configura-
tion thick pin-fins alongside 9% volume fraction. Paraffin wax
and n-eicosane was used as a PCM and results evinced best heat
transfer characteristics with 2 mm and 3 mm diameter for square
and round configurations, respectively, thick pin-fins heat sinks
on the effect of pin-fin arrangement, PCM volume, latent heat
phase, power densities, thermal capacity and thermal
Fig. 1 Schematic view of experimental setup
conductance of square and circular pin-fins on thermal manage-
ment. Six various PCMs based on meting temperature and latent
heat capacity, were probed with inline and staggered distribution
of circular and square pin-fins with aluminum as TCE by Ashraf
et al. [33]. The findings instigated superior performance of
inline arrangement as compared to staggered for both circular
and square pin-fins heat sinks.
This research activity is to investigate the proposed techni-
cal which would promote the dissipation of heat generated
inside the chip or processor with the joint contribution of fins,
heat sink and PCMs. The study will investigate and compare
the thermal performance of finless heat sinks with pin-finned
heat sink employing inline and staggered pin-fins of triangular
geometry. Moreover, the experimental values of latent heat of
fusion will be calculated and compared to theoretical latent
heat for all the PCMs used. The final goal is to develop better
passive cooling techniques for modern electronic equipment
to enhance its performance remarkably.
2 Experimental facility
Experimental setup is prepared with maximum possible accu-
racy as per design specifications to achieve the desired objec-
tives efficiently. The schematic view of original setup is shown
in Fig. 1. It comprises of the following major components.

2.1 Heat sink configuration
Heat sinks are the major component of the current research
study. These heat sinks are designed based on average dimen-
sions of heat sinks that successfully fits in the typical design of
cooling system for portable electronic gadgets. All the heat
sinks are manufactured from Aluminium (Al-6061-T6) with
the constant overall dimensions as 71 × 70 × 25mm3. The in-
side working space obtained after excluding wall thickness of
7 mm on all four sides and 5 mm base thickness is 57 × 56 ×
20 mm3. A standard 9% volume fraction of TCEs is employed
a. Unfinned heat sink
b: Triangular inline heat sink
c. Triangular staggered heat sink
Fig. 2 Pictorial view of heat sink configurations under study
Heat Mass Transfer
which was established Baby and Balaji [34], Ashraf et al. [33]
and Ali et al. [35]. The isometric view of all the three heat sinks
under study is shown in Fig. 2. The orthogonal projections of
triangular inline pin-fin array are depicted in Fig. 3. The first of
these is the unfinned or empty heat sink and the two pin-fin
heat sinks of the triangular geometry have the inline and stag-
gered arrays of specific dimensions of 1.5 × 1.5 × 20 mm3.
The total number of fins for inline and staggered are 64
each as calculated using the following equations:
 
VS
N fin ¼ 0:09 ψ ð1Þ
vfin
The materials making the overall heat sink assembly sys-
tem comprised of rubber insulation perplex sheet and silicone
gasket, preventing any heat loss from the system. Silicone
gasket provides a tight seal to prevent leakage of PCM when
it melts as well as air circulation through the heat sink. The
Perspex sheet covering the top surface is to insulate and visu-
alize the phase change in PCM during experimentation. The
details of these components are listed in Table 1.
2.2 DC power supply
A single output DC power supply of Keysight Technologies®
[36] (6675A, 0-120 V/0-18A) with programming accuracy of
voltage and current 0.04% + 120 mV and 0.1% + 12 mA, re-
spectively at reference temperature of 25 °C [30], provides the
required power input to the heater adhered at the base of heat
sink assembly. The uncertainty in different quantities involved
are listed in Table 2.
The sticker type silicon rubber plate heater OMEGA®
(SRFG-202/10-P-220 V) of 50 × 50 mm2 cross-sectional area
is adhered to the base of heat sink to mimic heat generation to
act as typical electronic device. The power level selected for
experimentation ranges from 5 W to 8 W corresponding to a
heat flux from 2.0 kW/m2 to 3.2kW/m2.
2.3 Data acquisition system
Data acquisition system is used for recording the required
quantities attached to laptop through the software (Agilent).
The data acquisition system used in this study is from
Keysight technologies (34972A) of temperature range from
−100°C to 1200°C. It comprises of built-in sensors to record
temperature with the help of thermocouples.
2.4 Selected PCMs
The study analyses three variants of paraffin i.e. paraffin wax
(Merck, Germany) [37], RT-44 and RT-35HC [38]. Paraffin
wax has been studied by many researchers for its exceptional
heat transfer characteristics. The properties of the mentioned
Heat Mass Transfer
Fig. 3 Isometric view of
triangular inline pin-fin heat sink
PCMs are listed in Table 3. The volume fraction of PCM is
kept constant at 90% of the difference between the total vol-
ume and total fins volume as established by Arshad et al. [33].
It is calculated using Eq. 2:
 
ν PCM ¼ 0:9 V S −V fin ð2Þ
2.5 Thermocouples
Temperature measurement is the key aspect to determine the
thermal performance of PCM based heat sinks. To measure
the temperature at various positions, overall eight highly pre-
cision K-type thermocouples (OMEGA®, 0.5 mm wire diam-
eter) of temperature range −200°C to 1250°C, are integrated at
different positions across the heat sink as shown in Fig. 4. All
the thermocouples are highly calibrated and have discrepancy
of ±0.1°C within a temperature range of 0 − 100°C by ASTM
standard [39]. The analogue data obtained by thermocouples
Table 1 Material specifications used for making the assembly of heat sink
Sr. no. Materials used
1 Perspex sheet
2 Silicon Rubber gasket
3 Rubber Pad for heat sink
4 Rubber pad for heat sink bottom
is converted into digital form through data acquisition system
connected to laptop displaying the data through the Agilent
software. The thermocouples labelled as H1, H2 demonstrate
the position of thermocouples at the base of the heat sink,
grooved at a dimension of 35 × 1.5mm2, measuring the tem-
perature of the heat sink base in direct contact. Thermocouples
W1 to W4 are protruded through the walls of heat sinks to
measure the boundary wall temperature of the heat sink. To
visualize the temperature variation in PCM, thermocouples
T1, T2 and T3 are positioned at vertical heights 10mm, 15mm
and 20mm respectively from the heat sink base. Araldite paste
is used to firmly fix the thermocouples at its place. Similar
data acquisitioning was used in [39–43].
3 Results and discussion
In this study, the analysis of most effective PCM based pin-fin
configuration for an ideal heat sink is studied for the three
different paraffin variants. Experimental results are analysed
Dimensions (mm)
71 × 70 × 5
71 × 70 × 3 (with a cut out of 57 × 56)
220 × 220 × 25 (with a cut out of 114 × 114)
220 × 220 × 65
 Heat Mass Transfer

Table 2 Uncertainty in various quantities

Quantity Uncertainty

Current 0.04%
Voltage 0.1%
Temperature ±0.1°C

for different operating conditions. These include the situations

where only melting is significant and others where both melt-
ing and solidification are counted. The input power set for
experimentation involving charging phase only are considered
between 5 W and 8 W. Whereas, for the case of both charging
and discharging the analysis is done at a midrange heat input
of 6 W. The experimental data is then worked on using differ-
ent analysis tools.

3.1 Case 1: charging only

3.1.1 The inline-staggered array comparison (without PCM)

Fig. 4 Thermocouples integration across the heat sink geometry
The comparison between triangular inline and staggered for
base temperature variation along time for the instances without
PCM is shown in Fig. 5a and b for 5 W and 8 W, respectively. between temperature and time graphs in Fig. 6a and b at 5 W
Figure 5a illustrates that at 5 W there is negligible temperature and 8 W respectively. From the analysis of Fig. 6a at 5 W, the
difference in the two arrays with maximum variance of 0.1°C temperature trends can be explained as follows:
throughout the 90mins period. Moreover, if same analysis is The PCM, RT-35HC shows a steady and smooth graphical
drawn at a higher power level of 8 W, the difference in relative trend for all three heat sinks. Both triangular inline and stag-
cooling rate of the two pin-fin arrangements shows no reason- gered pin-fin arrangements follow a very narrow temperature
able difference and similar performance is observed. This is profile difference of less than 1°С, but still it is clear from the
shown in Fig. 5b, where both inline and staggered arrays also graph that triangular inline pin-fin heat sink dominates cooling
overlap each other. This concludes that for cases of natural rate over triangular staggered pin-fin heat sink. Moreover, a
convection there is no significant difference in performance remarkable difference can be seen between the finned and
of either of the pin-fin arrangements at any given power level. unfinned heat sinks. The maximum temperature of 45°С is
recorded after the span of 90mins for unfinned heat sink, which
3.1.2 The finned and unfinned comparison using PCM shows the all-out temperature difference of 9°С as compared to
inline triangular pin-fins. In case of paraffin wax, it is obvious
Now the comparison is placed out for the analysis of three that triangular inline fins arrays dominate the temperature dis-
different variants of paraffin studied in this experiment. Here sipation over the other configurations-heat sinks. Unfinned heat
it is worth mentioning that this analysis is extended between sink and triangular staggered pin-fin overlap each other for an
finned and unfinned heat sinks. All these are shown as a part initial 40mins, and from this point triangular staggered pin-fin is
in a recognizably leading position due to its lower temperature
Table 3 Thermal properties of PCMs profile than unfinned heat sink. As for RT-44 is concerned it is
visible that triangular staggered array shows a better thermal
Material kpcm Cpcm λpcm Tpcm ρpcm performance as compared to its inline counterpart for initial
(W/m. k) (kJ/kg. K) (kJ/kg) (°C) (kg/m3)
50mins, but then triangular inline enhances heat transfer at a
Paraffin Wax 0.167(L) 2.8 173.6 56–58 790(L) higher rate. For the unfinned heat sink the temperature profile of
0.212(S) 880(S) RT-44 it remains at highest temperature points until the 80mins
RT-44 0.2 2 250 44 700(L) where it overlaps the triangular staggered array.
800(S) Now, for same PCMs the heat input is 8 W, shown in Fig.
RT-35HC 0.2 3 240 35 770(L) 6b. So, Fig. 6b shows that PCMs with lower melting temper-
880(S) atures have a relatively fluctuating behaviour, as observed by
the temperature profiles of RT-35HC and RT-44. For RT-44 it
Heat Mass Transfer
(a) Triangular inline pin-fin vs staggered pin-fin at 5W
(b) Triangular inline pin-fin vs staggered pin-fin at 8W
Fig. 5 Triangular inline vs staggered pin-fin heat sinks without PCM
can be observed that triangular inline dominates others,
followed by triangular staggered and unfinned heat sinks.
The PCM has crossed its melting point at this high power
and has got both sensible and latent modes of heat transfer.
The heat sinks firstly overlap each other at 25mins and they
resume their previous positions at 57mins with triangular
inline pin-fin arrangement again in leading spot trailed by
triangular staggered pin-fin and unfinned heat sink at last.
The temperature profile of RT-35HC shows that triangular
inline fin array is the leading heat transfer position, whilst
triangular staggered dominates the unfinned heat sink until
the 80mins where both intersect each other and follow same
trajectory till the end of experimentation span. The latent heat
region is negligibly small as compared to RT-44. Furthermore,
paraffin wax shows a very smooth curve for all three heat
sinks and has narrow temperature difference between all three
heat sinks. The maximum temperature difference of 1°С be-
tween triangular inline and staggered pin-fin arrangements
while a similar difference is recorded between triangular stag-
gered and unfinned heat sink. The PCM has not reached its
melting point even at this high power level.
So, from this discussion triangular inline is found as the
dominating pin-fin arrangement whilst triangular staggered is
not as efficient choice as the former. Moreover, the unfinned
heat sink obviously had less heat transfer enhancement then
both the triangular heat sinks due to lack of pin-fins.
Scientifically approaching these results lead to the fact that
finned heat sink has a higher thermal conduction rate due to
the presence of fins. As it is known that PCMs have a good heat
absorbent nature but also very low thermal conductivity. This
thermal conduction is escalated using pin-fins, which is obvious
from the results. However, the comparison between the trian-
gular inline and triangular staggered is worked out using the
fact that inline pin-fins have smooth heat dissipation whilst the
staggered pin-fins show the exact opposite. Furthermore during
latent heating phase the natural convection currents of PCM
melting, for case of inline triangular, dominate over staggered
pin-fins resulting enhancing the phase change duration. Besides
the edges of triangular pin-fins causes the uniform communica-
tion of natural convection cells both in longitudinal and lateral
directions in presence of PCM which ultimately enhances the
thermal performance of heat sink. These two results are verified
by recent works of Ashraf et al. [33] and Arshad et al. [29].
3.1.3 Enhancement ratio with PCMs
The analysis of enhancement ratio on basis of PCM can be
described as the ratio of the operational time engaged to reach
a critical operational time (COT) of PCM based heat sink to
the time engaged by the same heat sink without PCM. For this
analysis, the triangular inline pin-fin array is opted as it is the
best pin-fin arrangement amongst the above studied configu-
rations. This discussion is carried out using a scattered data
chart for COT of 45°C and COT of 60°C are dealt in Fig. 7a
and b, respectively. COT is that temperature at which the
functionality of an electronic device gets affected due to the
increase in temperature.
Figure 7a shows the enhancement in operational time at
COT of 45°C. Here the plot shows the clear picture that RT-
44 has the highest operational enhancement for all portrayed
power levels. It is closely followed by RT-35HC which lags
by a few points. However, it is also evident that paraffin wax
shows least effectiveness for the given COT of 45°C, render-
ing it least useful for the given scheme as its enhancement
ratio is 1.5 or below. The reason why paraffin wax is not
suitable for this scheme is that it melts between a temperature

Fig. 6 Comparison Triangular
inline and staggered arrays with
unfinned heat sink with PCM
range of 56 − 58°C. This means that at COT of 45°C paraffin
wax is still in solid phase and continues to gain sensible heat
until its melting point is reached and latent heat duration com-
mences. Moreover, the general trend across the given heat
input is also similar for all three PCMs. The enhancement ratio
for all three variants of paraffin increases continuously, with
maximum value at 7 W. At 8 W, the enhancement ratio drops
to the values somewhere in between 5 W and 6 W.
Considering the same analysis for COT of 60°C, a different
situation is observed in Fig. 7b. Here it is evident that RT-35HC
peaks at power levels of 5 W and 6 W, whilst it serves at low-
ermost position at higher heat inputs of 7 W and 8 W. Paraffin
Heat Mass Transfer
(a) At 5 W
(b) at 8 W
wax is seen in the lowest position at 5 W, whereas it rises as
second-best option from 6 W and onwards. RT-44 shows least
enhancement at lower power levels of 5 W and 6 W, whilst it is
the most dominant paraffin variant at 7 W and 8 W.
The dominance of RT-44 over other variants of paraffin
suggest its modest melting point in between RT-35HC and
paraffin wax. Moreover, it has highest latent heat capacity
among the three PCMs studied. Paraffin is less of an enhancer
due to its very low latent heat as compared to the Rubitherm
PCMs (i.e. RT-44, RT-35HC). This sets the stage for RT-44 as
the most effective latent heat enhancer in combination to an
aluminium based heat sink.
Heat Mass Transfer
(a) At COT of
(b) At COT of
Fig. 7 Enhancement ratio w.r.t PCM for different PCMs
3.1.4 Enhancement ratio with TCEs
Now analysis is done for the enhancement ratio on basis of
TCEs i.e. pin-fins. This phenomenon can be defined as the
ratio of operational time taken by the heat sink with fins to
that of a heat sink without fins to reach a COT. Meanwhile the
PCMs remain constant, this analysis can be observed in
Fig. 8a and b for COT of 45°C and COT of 60°C, respectively.
This study helps to single out the PCMs whose performance is
enhanced by the presence of fins.
From Fig. 8a for COT of 45°C, the enhancement ratio con-
tinuously decreases with the increasing power levels. Here it is
(a) At COT of
(b) At COT of
Fig. 8 Enhancement ratio w.r.t PCM for different PCMs
observed that RT-35HC has the highest enhancement ratio
with respect to fins at all power levels. This shows that its
performance is enhanced the most by the presence of pin-fins.
RT-44 is the second most enhanced PCM with the presence of
vertical pin-fins but is also least enhanced at 7 W. The PCM,
paraffin wax’s performance, is least affected because COT of
45°C is well below its melting point.
Similarly, for COT of 60°C the general graphical trend is
also decreasing along the higher power inputs. Here again RT-
35HC dominates all other paraffins at all power inputs except
at 6 W. Paraffin wax has same enhancement ratio at 5 W and
6 W, then it decreases and at 8 W it has least enhancement
among all. At 7 W, all three PCMs have nearly the same
enhancement ratio. For RT-44 enhancement at 5 W and 6 W

Fig. 9 Temperature profiles of
triangular inline and staggered in
charging and discharging phases
for different PCMs
is least amongst all the three paraffins, but it equalizes with
others at 7 W and is then second most enhanced PCM with
fins at 8 W. In conclusion, RT-35HC shows most enhance-
ment in operational time with the presence of pin-fins at both
COT of 45°C and 60°C. Whereas paraffin wax is rendered
unsuitable for COT of 45°C due to its high melting point, it
shows least enhancement at COT of 60°C.
3.2 Case 2: charging and discharging
Now the operational conditions are changed and discharging
phase is as much prominent for the heat transfer in said elec-
tronic devices as much as charging. The aim is to maximize
the charging phase and minimize the discharging phase. This
analysis is performed for all PCMs using both triangular inline
and staggered pin-fin arrangement in Fig. 9, at a heat input of
6 W. The time set for each phase is 90mins. It is evident from
Fig. 9 that for the case of no PCM, triangular inline is as
efficient as triangular staggered for the charging phase
reaching a maximum temperature of 67°C. However, with
the initiation of discharging span triangular inline dominates
Fig. 10 Temperature profiles of
RT-44 based triangular inline
highlighting different phases of
RT-44 in the charging and
discharging cycle
Heat Mass Transfer
its counterpart and is better heat transfer option. Moreover, the
difference with the advent of PCM into the heat sink system is
obvious as there is a difference of at least 10°C between the
heat sinks without PCM and the heat sinks with PCM. For the
case of RT-35HC triangular inline array is seen dominant in
both the charging and discharging phases. Similar behaviour
can be observed in case of paraffin wax too, where the trian-
gular inline pin-fin arrangement is again the leading configu-
ration. However, judging the differences between the two
PCMs, it can be observed that paraffin wax has a very low
latent heat than RT-35HC, which makes the latter a higher
transferring PCM as observed in the Fig. 9 as well.
Furthermore, paraffin wax barely reaches its melting point
whilst RT-35HC melts within initial 50mins and then gains
sensible heat. The most efficient material seen is RT-44 with
triangular inline array as better thermal conductivity enhancer
in the discharging phase.
The temperature difference between the triangular inline and
staggered at the end of discharging phase is approximately 8°C.
This summarizes that RT-44 filled triangular inline heat
sink is always the best option not just for the systems where
Heat Mass Transfer
charging is important but also the cases where discharging
deems equal significance. The discharge time for other
PCMs is very high and their heat transfer rate is slower as
well, concluding them as not the best solution when both the
phases are considered.
Considering the different phases of RT-44, it can be seen
from Fig. 10 how this PCM goes through phase changes dur-
ing its charging and discharging cycle. As observed from
Fig. 10, RT-44 is in its sensible heating phase in the initial
30mins. Therefrom, it starts gaining latent heat of fusion and
this phase is elongated for 60mins until the end of charging
phase. Then the discharging phase initiates at 90mins and
latent heat is released within 20mins of the latent cooling
phase. After that the sensible cooling continues until the end
of 90mins of discharging time with the end temperature of
28°C which is nearest to the initial temperature of 25°C. The
latent heat region can be observed to have less steep slope than
the sensible heat region.
4 Conclusion
Experimental study was performed on the different configu-
rations of heat sinks, including both finned and unfinned heat
sinks. Triangular configuration was chosen for the pin-fin heat
sinks, with inline and staggered pin-fin arrangements.
Furthermore, three variants of paraffin of different thermo-
physical properties were studied. The heat input to the system
was in the range of 5 W to 8 W. Following conclusions are
drawn from various analysis performed on the experimental
data:
1. In comparison of triangular inline and staggered pin-fin
arrays without PCM, both pin-fin arrangements showed
similar behavior.
2. The finned and unfinned analysis using PCM concluded
triangular inline as the dominating pin-fin arrangement
with triangular staggered lagging it but leading the
unfinned heat sink.
3. Analyzing the enhancement ratio with respect to PCMs, it
was observed that RT-44 dominated over other variants of
paraffin due to its modest melting point highest latent heat
capacity between the three selected PCMs.
4. For the enhancement ratio with respect to pin-fins, RT-
35HC had the most enhancement in operational time with
the presence of pin-fins at both COT of 45°C and 60°C.
However, paraffin wax was discovered to be least en-
hanced even with addition of pin-fins in the heat sink.
5. The study of charging and discharging suggested that tri-
angular inline heat sink filled with RT-44 acted as the best
option because of its elongated latent heat phase and
shortened latent cooling phase, all due to its high latent
heat capacity.
Acknowledgements The corresponding author wishes to acknowledge
the financial support provided by the University of Engineering and
Technology, Taxila, Pakistan under the faculty research project through
approval letter No. UET/ASR&TD/RG-1001.
Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdic-
tional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
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