Evaluating Hybrid Heat Sink Designs Incorporating Metal Foam, Phase Change Materials, and Air Channels
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31185/wjes.Vol14.Iss2.875Keywords:
PCM, Heat Sink, Paraffin Wax, Latent Heat, Thermal Overshoot, Numerical Study, Transient Analysis, Foam.Abstract
This paper provides an extensive comparative study of the thermal management performance of hybrid heat sink systems using phase change materials (PCMs) and air subjected to different levels of heat flux from 2500 - 10000 W/m². Five different configurations were tested: air, foam/air, paraffin/air, organic material OM air, and finned heat sink HS wax hybrids. The air-only baseline was determined not to sufficiently support high heat load applications due to the base temperatures exceeding 840 K. PCM-based systems exhibited considerable thermal buffering capabilities through the use of isothermic plateaus over time. For example, at a low heat flux level of 2500 W/m², the OM and HS wax configurations maintained a temperature of approximately 325 K for nearly 50 minutes. The overall performance of the hybrid systems was quantified by both the liquid fraction and the Thermal Enhancement Ratio (TER). Even though the HS-wax hybrid reaches full liquefaction much faster because of superior thermal distribution through metallic fins, it achieves the maximum amount of latent heat. The results of our analysis regarding the effects of operational temperature on operational time are as follows: At low target temperatures (60˚C - 120˚C), OM wax has the highest latency energy (partial very early) ratio (TER) of three to one. Although when operating under high flow conditions 10000 W/m², the thermal efficiency ratio becomes similar across all of the PCMs. In conclusion, although all the PCMs provide nearly identical thermal efficiencies when subjected to extreme conditions, it is worth noting that total latent heat capacity is likely the most limiting factor to thermal breakthrough, particularly at high flow rates.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Abbas J. Al-Jassani, Maryam Alathraa Saad, Mohammed G. Muhssen, Adel G. Nasser
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