Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 2822–2832

www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Application of phase change materials in thermal

management of electronics
Ravi Kandasamy, Xiang-Qi Wang *, Arun S. Mujumdar
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260, Singapore

Received 25 April 2006; accepted 17 December 2006

Available online 10 January 2007

Abstract

Application of a novel PCM package for thermal management of portable electronic devices was investigated experimentally for
effects of various parameters e.g. power input, orientation of package, and various melting/freezing times under cyclic steady conditions.
Also, a two-dimensional numerical study was made and compared the experimental results. Results show that increased power inputs
increase the melting rate, while orientation of the package to gravity has negligible effect on the thermal performance of the PCM pack-
age. The thermal resistance of the device and the power level applied to the PCM package are of critical importance for design of a pas-
sive thermal control system. Comparison with numerical results confirms that PCM-based design is an excellent candidate design for
transient electronic cooling applications.
 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords: Phase change materials; Electronics cooling; Thermal management; Cyclic steady state

1. Introduction Gong and Mujumdar [1–7] have carried out a series of

Thermal management within the overall design of elec-
tronic products is increasingly important since each new
generation of electronic devices squeezes more power and
performance into ever-smaller packages. In recent years,
phase change materials (PCMs) have been widely examined
as alternative cooling methods for such transient electronic
cooling applications as personal computing, wearable com-
puters, mobile phones, digital video cameras, etc. Passive
thermal management using PCMs is suitable for applica-
tions where heat dissipation is intermittent or transient.
Among the advantages of PCM are: high latent heat of
fusion giving high energy density, high specific heat, con-
trollable temperature stability, and small volume change
on phase change. Heat is stored (withdrawn from the hot
component) during melting and is released to the ambient
during the freezing period.
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +65 6874 4657; fax: +65 6779 1459.
E-mail address: x.wang@nus.edu.sg (X.-Q. Wang).
numerical studies on heat transfer during melting and
freezing of single and multiple PCMs. A new design for
thermal store using multiple PCMs was first proposed by
them [1] for power generation for use in space-based activ-
ities. They extended their analysis from only the charge
process (melting) to a combined charge/discharge (melt-
ing/freezing) process [3]. Gong and Mujumdar [4] also car-
ried out an exergetic analysis for thermal storage systems
using multiple PCMs. They showed that the theoretical
limit of the exergy output increases when using an infinite
number of PCMs. In practice, this number must be finite,
however. In [5], by a thermodynamic analysis, Gong and
Mujumdar found that the increase of the overall exergy
efficiency could theoretically be doubled, or even tripled
by use of multiple PCMs.
Casano and Piva [8] investigated the periodic phase
change process of a plane PCM slab numerically and
experimentally. Their comparison between numerical and
experimental data showed good agreement. However, the
numerical method used was a one-dimensional code which
neglected the possible effect of free convection. Jiji and

1359-4311/$ - see front matter  2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2006.12.013
 R. Kandasamy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 2822–2832
Nomenclature
A(/) porosity function, A(/) = C(1  /)2/(/3 + e),
e = 0.001
A, B constant in Eq. (5)
cp specific heat, J/kg K RT
h specific enthalpy, h ¼ href þ T ref cp dT
k thermal conductivity, W/m K
L latent heat, J/kg
S momentum source term, S = A(/)u
Sh latent heat source term, S h ¼  oto ðqLÞ
Dt time step, s
T temperature, C
u velocity, m/s
x Cartesian coordinate, m
a fluid’s volume fraction
Greek symbols
b thermal expansion coefficient, K1
dij Kronecker delta
Gaye [9] also analytically examined one-dimensional solid-
ification and melting of a slab with uniform volumetric
energy generation. However, the low thermal conductivity
of PCMs presents a significant challenge in design of elec-
tronic cooling systems. In order to overcome this draw-
back, researchers have proposed various heat transfer
enhancement techniques, e.g. use of partitions/fins [10],
graphite/metal matrices [11,12], dispersed high-conductiv-
ity particles in the PCM [13], micro-encapsulation of
PCM [14,15], and PCM-based heat sinks [16].
For thermal management of electronic components, the
chip and other functional electronic components must be
kept below their respective allowable maximum tempera-
ture at all times during normal operation. Generally,
considering that each chip has a different maximum
operating temperature, the global maximum allowable
temperatures range from 85 to 120 C to prevent the com-
ponents from overheating. Furthermore, the temperature
tolerated by humans must be considered as well. Henry
Dreyfuss Associates (1993) [17] report that the maximum
environmental temperature human can tolerate for a one
period is 49 C and that metals and non-metals become dis-
ruptive to human tissues at 50 and 62 C, respectively.
Based on this report, Leoni and Amon [18] assumed that
humans can comfortably hold plastic objects up to 45 C.
Such basic criteria are involved in the thermal control
design of portable electronic devices.
The objective of this work is to investigate the feasibility
of using PCMs for application in thermal control of porta-
ble electronic devices which are used intermittently. The
heat transfer characteristics of a PCM-based control unit
are tested experimentally for various power input levels,
orientations of the PCM package, and various melting/
freezing times under cyclic steady state conditions. A flat
2823
l dynamic viscosity, kg/m s
/ liquid fraction
q density, kg/m3
Subscripts
i coordinate component
l liquid phase
m melting
n the nth fluid
ref reference
s solid phase
w wall
quad PCM package [19,20] was fabricated for this purpose.
Furthermore, a generalized two-dimensional computa-
tional model is developed to assess the heat transfer perfor-
mance of the PCM package.
2. Experimental setup
The experimental setup was designed to simulate the
applications of typical portable electronic device. The sche-
matic of the setup is shown in Fig. 1a and the illustration of
the actual setup is shown in Fig. 1b. The over-sized enclo-
sure of the PCM package is intentionally designed to pro-
vide good resolution of the internal temperature profile
with the PCM. Considering that this is a transient heat
transfer problem in a 3D domain, spatially spaced thermo-
couples were placed inside the PCM slab at fixed spatial
intervals to record the evolution of temperatures with time
at the monitored points. As shown in Fig. 1, thermocouple
location P1 was selected for temperature measurement at
the mid-center of the PCM, while P2 and P3 were referred
to temperature of heater and plastic case, respectively. The
experiments were limited to a single PCM (paraffin wax),
whose properties are shown in Table 1.
The heat dissipation by the chip module was simulated
by placing a single uniform electrical heater on the sides
of the PCM package. The rest of the other sides were
encased in using a 3 mm perspex sheet. As shown in
Table 1, perspex is chosen because its low thermal conduc-
tivity is 0.17 W/m/K, which is the same as that of ABS. and
it is transparent as well so that usual observation of the
melting phenomenon could be made. ABS is used in most
external casings of portable electronic devices.
The data acquisition unit used was an Agilent 34970A
Data Acquisition Unit, linked to a PC. This setup enables
2824 R. Kandasamy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 2822–2832

Fig. 1. Schematic (a) and illustration (b) of the experimental setup.

Table 1
Properties of paraffin wax and perspex
ql (kg/m3) qs (kg/m3) kl (W/m K) ks (W/m K) cp (J/kg K) Tm (C) L (J/kg)
Paraffin wax 750 900 0.12 0.21 2890 46–48 173,400
Perspex – 1190 – 0.7 1500 80 900

the temperature of each thermocouple to be captured at external temperatures etc. was derived for three orienta-
fixed time intervals and plotted in real-time. Thirty one tions of the package (horizontal, vertical and slanted at
T-type thermocouples were attached to the internal PCM 45) at several power levels which were either steady or
cavity as well as its external surfaces. An additional ther- time dependent.
mocouple was fixed in the vicinity of the PCM package
to record the ambient temperature. The material properties
for our experiments are listed in Table 2. 3. Experimental results
For each power level, at least three different runs were
conducted to verify reproducibility of the data. One typical In this experimental study, the effects of the following
test for local temperature (P1 in Fig. 1) evolution with time parameters were examined:
9 W case in the 45  orientation for both melting and freez-
ing phases are shown in Fig. 2. The uncertainties for tran- • Power level. For the vertical orientation, power input
sient temperature recorded and power measurement for a levels were set at 6 W, 9 W, and 12 W giving power den-
power level of 12 W were within ±3.5% and ±0.5%, respec- sity values of at 2.4 kW/m2, 3.6 kW/m2, and 4.8 kW/m2,
tively. Hence the resulting uncertainty for calculated tem- respectively.
perature was within 4%, which also can be seen from Fig. 2. • Orientations with respect to gravity. For fixed power
From the data collected, information such as melting input of 12 W, orientations examined were: horizontal,
time, time to attain steady state, maximum heater and vertical, and inclined at 45 to the vertical.
• Melting/freezing times until cyclic steady state (CSS) is
Table 2 reached. During CSS for the vertical orientation case
Properties of materials with 12 W power input, various melting/freezing times
Material k (W/m K) q (kg/m3) cp (J/kg K) were selected for testing.
Silicon (die) 117.5–0.42 (T  100) 2330 700
Substrate 14.0 3690 880 To analyze the thermal performance of the PCM pack-
Aluminum 180 2700 963 age, values of some important variables must be clarified
PCB 0.3 1200 880
before detailed discussion. During experimental testing,
 R. Kandasamy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 2822–2832 2825

Fig. 2. Typical reproducibility of results for the wax temperature at location P1 for 45 orientation (9 W).

the temperature of the heater should be kept under 85 C
since it is typically the highest operating temperature for
most chips to ensure reliability. Also, the performance of
the CCD in digital cameras, for example, degrades above
85 C. Since the plastic casing is the surface users actually
hold during use of portable electronic devices, the external
temperature should be held below 45 C for use comfort.
These constraints were considered in this study.
3.1. Effect of power levels
First, a similar experimental setup but without the PCM
package was built and tested for direct comparison of its
thermal performance with the PCM package. Results
showed that the heater and plastic case temperatures of
the former device exceeded 100 C within 20 min. This
means the PCM package, as expected, has the capacity to
hold back temperature rise of the device at critical points.
Fig. 3 shows temperatures of the heater (P2 in Fig. 1) at
various power levels. Since the heater is directly attached
to the PCM package, the heater temperature reflects the
status of the PCM in the package. Since the heater reached
its maximum temperature in Fig. 3 data, it implies that the
PCM had melted fully. It is observed that a lower power
level results in longer time for full melting and also a lower
maximum temperature. However, it must be noted that the
power input is decided by electronic device itself and not by
users. Hence, various power input levels have to be consid-
ered in design. With increase of power from 6 W to 9 W to
12 W, the time for full melting decreased from 8850 s to
8050 s to 6400 s, while the maximum temperature of the
monitored point varied from 58 C to 73 C to 82 C,
respectively.
Also, as can be seen from Fig. 3, the time for solidifica-
tion of the PCM package during which the heat accumu-
lated during melting is dissipated is much longer than

Fig. 3. Comparison of the heater temperature (P2) for various power input levels.
2826 R. Kandasamy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 2822–2832
that for the melting phase. Note that the setup was cooled
by natural convection cooling rather than by forced con-
vection cooling. The PCM at the mid-plane takes a longer
time to freeze due to the poor thermal conductivity of par-
affin wax. However, the effect was minimized by the small
thickness of the package. Actually this is also the core idea
of small capsulated PCMs for increasing the effective ther-
mal conductivity. Hence, for small packages, similar to
ones discussed here, methods for enhancing the thermal
conductivity of PCM such as use of metal meshing struc-
tures or partitions may not be necessary as they increase
the cost of such devices. However, for large PCM pack-
ages, the improvement of the thermal conductivity of
PCM itself would enhance its thermal performance and
hence may be worth considering.
Fig. 4 shows the temperature of the plastic case (P3 in
Fig. 1) at various power levels. As mentioned earlier, the
plastic case is held by the user. Hence, its maximum tem-
perature should be controlled to be comfortable for users.
However, poor heat spreading can result in undesirably
high temperatures at some parts of the device. At the back
of the plastic case next to the heater, temperature profiles
recorded were beyond the comfort level within 5 min of
operation. However, on the front side of the plastic casing,
steady temperatures for 9 W and 12 W were slightly below
the melting point of the PCM (T = 42 C). The reason for
this observation is that the PCM near the walls undergoes
phase change at the later times. On the other hand, for the
case of 6 W, the steady state temperature at the same loca-
tion was much lower than the PCM’s melting temperature
(T = 34 C) as the PCM near the walls was still in solid
phase. Therefore, if a heat conduction path of low thermal
resistance could be provided from the back of the heater to
the PCM package, the temperatures on all sides of the plas-
tic case could be sustained at a comfortable level. Alterna-
tively, both sides of the heater can be clad with PCM
packages that are half the thickness of the original to
accomplish the same effect.
Fig. 4. Comparison of the plastic case temperature (P3) for various power inputs.
There could be an optimum PCM size for each power
input that needs to be tested for various input parameters
and PCM materials. This optimized size can be defined
as the smaller size of PCM slab required to maintain the
heater below 85 C and the external plastic case under
45 C for the duration of life of the battery life of the
device. The latent heat of fusion for the PCM must be uti-
lized in the 9 W and 12 W cases. The 6 W case shows that
the PCM could be of a smaller size and yet achieve the
designed temperature profiles. This reduction in size is crit-
ical for cost considerations and for keeping the overall size
and weight of the device small.
3.2. Effect of orientation
Fig. 5 shows the heater temperature (P2 in Fig. 1a) for
various orientations for 12 W power input: horizontal, ver-
tical, and inclined at 45 to the vertical. Experimental
results show that the orientation of the simulated package
affected its steady state temperature and the cooling time of
PCM because of free convection effects in the PCM melt.
For the vertical orientation case, the time for full melting
is decreased due to the increased effect of natural convec-
tion. However, as seen from this figure, the effects of orien-
tations were small enough to be ignored for practical
applications.
Fig. 6 demonstrates the measured temperature evolution
of the plastic case (P3 in Fig. 1a) for three typical orienta-
tions. Similar to the temperature distribution over the hea-
ter, the effect of orientation on the plastic case temperature
is small. The maximum temperature decreases for horizon-
tal to slanted, to the vertical position. During use of porta-
ble electronic devices such as mobile phones or PDAs, the
position and orientation of the device is subject to random
change. Considering the negligible effect of orientation on
the thermal performance of PCM-based thermal system,
these models can be expected to work safely in real
environment.
 R. Kandasamy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 2822–2832 2827

Fig. 5. Comparison of the heater temperature (P2) for various orientations (12 W).

Fig. 6. Comparison of the plastic case temperature (P3) for various orientations (12 W).

3.3. Effects of melting/freezing times
Fig. 7 shows the evolution of heater temperature with
time for different melting/freezing times under cyclic steady
state (CSS). Comparing the cyclic and constant power
experiments for 12 W in vertical orientation, the cyclic
one was able to sustain temperatures at all points of the
simulated device at very low levels (55 C for heater and
34 C for external casing temperatures) for large on/off
cycles. Thus, when designing a PCM package for electronic
cooling, the average power (such as RMS value) over the
duration of the battery life could be used as a conservative
design criterion. Else, if constant peak power was assumed
for design, the resultant PCM package would be over-sized
to meet the cooling needs in operation of the device. The
unnecessary bulk would add to the cost, size and weight
of the final device.
The thermal resistance between the PCM and the ambi-
ent has a significant effect on the equilibrium temperatures
of the device and the duration of temperature suppression.
This aspect is important to improve the melting and freez-
ing characteristics of a small PCM package rather than
improving the internal thermal resistance within the PCM
package. For the application of PCMs in the portable elec-
tronic industry, the size of the PCM package should not
exceed about ten percent of the whole device. In the case
of cell phones with camera functions and digital cameras,
this would be about the size of two strips of chewing
gum. Considering the small size required, the effect of ther-
mal resistance to the ambient would have greater impact on
the performance rather than the improvement of the inter-
nal thermal resistance of the PCM.
There is no concrete conclusion that can be drawn from
the infra-red images of the melting patterns of the PCMs as
shown in Fig. 8 since they are not the direct reflection of
the PCM melting temperature. Initially, these thermal
images show the external case temperature variations of
the enclosure rather than the melting phenomena. Thermal
resistance from the PCM to the ambient has a significant
effect on the equilibrium temperatures of the device and
the duration of temperature suppression. This aspect is
more important to improve the melting and freezing
2828 R. Kandasamy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 2822–2832

Fig. 7. Comparison of the heater temperature (P2) for different melting/freezing times at cyclic steady state.

Fig. 8. Experimental IR images for melting at vertical 12 W constant power (external slide profile).

characteristics of a small PCM package rather than
improving the internal thermal heat resistance within the
PCM package.
4. Numerical model
A schematic diagram of the two-dimensional physical
model is shown in Fig. 9. Similar to our experimental setup
as shown in Fig. 1, the PCM (paraffin wax) is filled in the
aluminum casing with 10 mm empty space at the top,
which is open to ambient to allow expansion of PCM vol-
ume during melting. Modeling of phase change processes
presents a significant challenge due to the complexity and
conjunction of the involved physical phenomena such as
volumetric expansion due to the phase change, convection
in the liquid phase, and motion of the solid in the melt due
to density differences.
The present work attempts to overcome the limitations
and to solve complete conservation equations simulta-
neously for the solid fins, solid and liquid PCM, and air,
while allowing for PCM expansion, convection in the
fluid media (melted PCM and air), and solid motion in
the liquid. Detailed temperature and phase fields have
been obtained as function of time, showing evolution of
the heat transfer in the system as the phase change material
melts.
As shown in Fig. 9, the PCM package is 12 mm wide
and 132 mm high with 2 mm thick aluminum wall, with a
PCM stored in the cavity 10 mm thick and 120 mm high
(top 10 mm is left for ambient air). The left wall is attached
to a constant heat flux source with 50 mm high to supply
heat for melting of PCM. From above, the PCM is exposed
to ambient air. Thus, it is assumed that heat is transferred
between the PCM and the base, the left wall, the right wall
and the ambient air. Heat transfer between the fin tips and
the ambient is neglected. In all the cases, the PCM used is a
commercially available paraffin wax, whose properties
shown in Table 1.
 R. Kandasamy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 2822–2832 2829

Pressure outlet Table 3

Properties of paraffin wax, aluminum, and air
10 mm
Supporter q (kg/m3) cp k
Air
(J/kg K) (W/m K)
Paraffin wax 750 2890 0.21/0.12
1 0:001ðT  319Þ þ 1
Aluminum 2719 871 202.4
Air 1.2 · 105T2  0.01134T + 3.498 1006.4 0.0242

Heater 2
q"
where A = 4.25 and B = 1790 following Reid et al. [23].
Other properties of PCM, aluminum, and air are summa-
130 mm rized in Tables 1 and 3.
50 mm 0 3 Since the proposed PCM-based heat sink problem is
PCM time dependent, initial and boundary conditions have to
be set appropriately before calculation. For the studied
cases here, initially, the whole system was kept at 25 C.
4
Then, a constant or variable temperature Tw was put at
the bottom wall of the heat sink, with continuous or dis-
crete heaters. The top of the air was open to ambient using
5
10 mm 2 mm constant pressure outlet conditions.
The numerical solution was carried out using the Fluent
6.2 software [21]. The PISO algorithm was used for pres-
sure–velocity coupling. The number of computational grids
Base was around 25,300 for the 2D model after grid-indepen-
dence tests. Furthermore, after a careful examination of
Fig. 9. 2D physical model.
the preliminary calculations, the time step in the simula-
For the phase change region in the PCM, the enthalpy- tions was as small at Dt = 0.01 s. The convergence was also
porosity method [21] was used. Hence, the porosity in each checked at each time step, with convergence criteria of 104
computational cell is set equal to the liquid fraction in that for velocity components and 107 for energy.
cell. Accordingly, the two-dimensional governing equa-
tions used here for the PCM-air system are [21]: 5. Numerical results

Continuity: Since the time step is 0.01 s to obtain realistic conver-

oan oan gence and the real-time for full melting in experiment is
þ ui ¼0 ð1Þ around 6000 s for the 12 W case, the total estimated time
ot oxi
steps are around 600,000. The computer time needed was
Momentum: as high as 3–5 h on a supercomputer to calculate 10 s of
o o real time. This means at least 4 months are needed for each
ðqui Þ þ ðqui uj Þ case to obtain accurate results. To reduce the calculation
ot oxj
   time, the heat input was increased fourfold to 48 W for
op o oui ouj 2 oul
¼ þ l þ  dij þ qgi þ S i the simulation studied. We also carried out simulation
oxi oxj oxj oxi 3 oxl
for the 12 W case, but only partial results were obtained
ð2Þ due to the excessive computing time requirement.
Temperature and melt fraction distributions in the 2D
Energy:
  PCM package at various times during melting for the
o o o oT 48 W case are shown in Figs. 10 and 11. Note that the tem-
ðqhÞ þ ðqui hÞ ¼ k þ Sh ð3Þ
ot oxi oxi oxi perature distribution is displayed for the full region while
the melt fraction distribution is only applicable for the
The density and dynamic viscosity of the liquid PCM de-
PCM region. It can be observed from Fig. 10 that the evo-
pend on its temperature. The density can be expressed as
lution of temperature of the PCM package starts from left
ql middle side due to the position of heater (refer to Fig. 9).
q¼ ð4Þ
bðT  T m Þ þ 1 Rather than conducting through the bottom walls, the heat
where b = 0.001 K1 can be used as presented by Humph- is collected in the top part of the casing due to stagnation
ries and Griggs [22]. The dynamic viscosity of the liquid of the ambient air. When the air temperature reaches melt-
PCM can be expressed as ing point, the PCM region near top side begins to melt and
causes the temperature to increase from the top to the bot-
l ¼ 0:001  expðA þ B=T Þ ð5Þ tom in the case. When compared with the IR contours
2830 R. Kandasamy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 2822–2832

Fig. 10. Temperature distribution of the 2D PCM slap for various time (48 W): (a) 50 s; (b) 100 s; (c) 200 s; (d) 300 s.

Fig. 11. Liquid fraction distribution of the 2D PCM slap for various time (48 W): (a) 50 s; (b) 100 s; (c) 200 s; (d) 300 s.

shown in Fig. 8, the evolution of the predicted temperature
contours is different. First, the experimental setup is three
dimensional, where the heat is conducted through the outer
aluminum walls as well. Also, the air gap in the experimen-
tal case is rather small since the compressed can be leaked
easily. However, for the 2D numerical model, heat can only
be conducted through the bottom wall and the ambient air.
It is noted that the bottom is not a good thermal path,
which is also demonstrated in experiment. Hence, heat is
mainly carried away by the heated air to the right side.
 R. Kandasamy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 2822–2832
Second, to reduce the computational time, we increased the
heat input fourfold with respect to the real experimental
setup (12 W). This means that the melting time in simula-
tion is much lower. Hence, it is found that for our numer-
ical case, only after 300 s, 80% of the PCM is melted, as
compared to 6000 s shown in Fig. 8d. In fact, the two cases
cannot be compared.
It is necessary to carry out the model study with exact
boundary conditions for the purpose of comparison.
Although the three-dimensional simulations are currently
not practicable, we attempted simulation for the 12 W case.
After two weeks of running, we obtained only partial
results. Fig. 12 demonstrates the temperature evolution
for three monitored points (Point 0, Point 1, and Point 2,
refer to Fig. 9) for the 12 W case. Plot for Point 0 shows
the temperature change of the heater with time. It is inter-
Fig. 12. Temperature evolution for monitored points with time in
numerical results (12 W).
Fig. 13. Evolution of liquid fraction with time in numerical results (12 W)
(only / 6 0.57 region is shown due to limited computational time).
2831
Fig. 14. Comparison between experiment and numerical simulation for
the local PCM temperature P1 (12 W).
esting to note that the heater temperature increases gradu-
ally from room temperature to 343 K at t = 500 s. After
that, due to the start of PCM melting, the heater tempera-
ture holds constant with time. Results shows again advan-
tages of using a PCM in electronic packages. On the other
hand, for the PCM itself, before melting, the temperature is
controlled below the melting point with gradual increase
from room temperature. During melting, the temperature
is nearly constant. However, after full melting, due to the
increased thermal conductivity and sudden decrease of heat
capacity of the liquid PCM, the local temperature increases
sharply above the melting point, as shown in Fig. 12 for
Point 1.
Fig. 13 shows the evolution of liquid fraction with time
for the 12 W case. Due to limited computational time, only
/ 6 0.57 region is shown here. One can see from the figure
that the melting rate increases with time. Initially, the heat
can only carried by the left wall. After warming of the top
air, the heat can be passed to the right wall and results in
quicker melting.
Comparison between experiment and numerical simula-
tion for the local PCM temperature (P1 in Fig. 1 and 3 in
Fig. 9) is displayed in Fig. 14. It can be observed that the
numerical prediction of the temperature follow closely with
the measured data. Fine tuning of the exiting model to 3D
would result in better comparisons.
6. Conclusions
A well designed PCM thermal management system can
be used for transient cooling applications for electronic
devices used intermittently. The effect of orientation for
such applications is insignificant and can be safely ignored
in design.
The main consideration is the power level which is cho-
sen as the design criterion. An average value over the
2832 R. Kandasamy et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 2822–2832
expected operating time of the device should be used
instead of the peak power level over the same amount of
time. After adding in a safety factor, a PCM package can
be designed which can meet not only the cooling needs of
the device, but also the cost and size requirements.
Another aspect to consider for a PCM thermal manage-
ment system is the thermal resistance of the PCM to the
ambient. This is important for both the transient cooling
during the peak operation of the device and for the freezing
of the PCM during low power times. Improvement in this
respect means a smaller PCM package can be used for the
same cooling needs.
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