A passive method with phase change material (PCM) is an appropriate technique in electronic cooling. But, due to its poor thermal conductivity, many enhancers are employed to reduce the thermal resistance offered by the PCM. A partial filling strategy to reduce the cost and weight of foams with fins is used in this study. A hybrid heat sink with a combination of fins placed at the sidewalls of the enclosure and foams filled at certain heights such as 10, 20, and 30 mm is considered in this present work. A two-dimensional numerical model with n-eicosane as PCM is developed in ANSYS Fluent 19. A multi-objective optimization is carried out using a reliable multi criteria decision making approach. Different weightage is distributed to the objective functions in this method depending on the choice of the user. The pore size and density vary for various filling heights, and 60 cases are investigated for both charging and discharging cycles. The pore size of 0.8-0.95 and pore density of 5-25 pores per inch with a broad range is considered. From the discussions, guidelines for selecting a preferable pore size and pore density can be determined based on the filling height and applied weightage.

The present study compares a modified variable height fin heat sink with the conventional constant height fin heat sink. The two heat sinks are filled with an equal volume of PCM (n-eicosane) and a fin volume fraction of 8 %. The experiments are performed for constant loads and also different power surge conditions. The pulsed heat loads are applied for two scenarios: 1. Constant load 4 W - power surge and constant load 4 W - power surge - 1800 s no-load condition, and 2. Power surge (50 s, 100 s, and 150 s) - no-load conditions of 1800 s. During experiments, the proposed variable height fin heat sinks possess better thermal performance for all load scenarios. Further, a 3D computational model is developed using ANSYS Fluent 19 to assess not only the effect of fin arrangement for different aspect ratios but also the impact of fin shape. The enclosure aspect ratio employed for the given study ranges from 0.3 to 0.8 for both the heat sinks. Regarding the fin structure in a heat sink, four types of fin shapes are adopted: square, circular, diamond, and triangular. The contour images of temperature and the liquid fraction are shown for the charging process. For the discharging process, the time required for the heat sinks to completely solidify the PCM is discussed. From the outcomes, variable height fin heat sinks provide enhanced melting/solidification for all the aspect ratios and fin shapes considered. As the aspect ratio increases, the time difference between the heat sink for the completion of the discharging cycle is reduced. Moreover, the triangular shaped fin shows a higher enhancement percentage of 2.29 % and 1.43 % during melting and 6.25 % and 12.5 % during solidification for both the heat sinks, respectively.

Phase change materials (PCM) RT-28HC, RT-35HC, and RT-44HC with three different melting temperatures, 29 °C, 36 °C, and 44 °C, with similar thermal properties, are considered. The PCM is oriented from the left to right side of the heat sink in its increasing order. The fins are attached to the heat sink longitudinally, and its orientation effects are studied low (100–500 W/m²) and high (1000–5000 W/m²) heat fluxes applied on the horizontal bottom surface of the heat sink. A 2D model is developed using ANSYS Fluent 19, and the fin orientation effects are investigated numerically. The orientation of fins at different angles such as 0°, +15°, +30°, +45°, +60°,-15°,-30°,-45°, −60° are considered. The effect of fins on the charging cycle is assessed by comparing a single and double PCM heat sink. Three initial conditions are investigated by altering the initial temperature 300 K, 303 K, and 310 K. At increasing heat input, the negative angled fins possess a higher melting rate. For different initial conditions, −60° provides higher enhancement, and +60° possesses prolonged melting for almost all cases. The performance of a triple PCM design is compared with single and double PCM counterparts under similar conditions.