Numerical Analysis of the Thermal Performance of a PCM-Based Heat Sink Under Flight Random Vibration

Abstract

A numerical method to simulate the thermal performance of a heat sink with phase change material (PCM) under flight random vibration is presented and verified through experimental results. Constant heat flux is imposed on the heat sink in contact with paraffin wax as PCM inside a container, while the container is subjected to random vibration with the overall acceleration of 16 g rms over the frequency range of 15-2000 Hz. The enthalpy-porosity method is used to model the PCM melting process. The random vibration, defined in the frequency domain, is converted to a time signal and applied to the numerical model, which is computed in the time domain. Comparisons between the numerical and experimental results showed a good agreement, demonstrating the same heat transfer characteristics and thermal performances of the heat sink, with the average temperature difference of 0.6% for the static case and 2.2% for the vibration case.