Numerical Analysis of Heat Storage Phenomenon in a Dual Latent Heat Sink

摘要

This paper focuses on the numerical analysis of the heat storage phenomenon in a dual latent heat sink intended for low thermal duty cycle electronic heat sink applications. The effectiveness of this heat sink depends on the rapidness of the charging facility in the design during the pulse heat generation period of the duty cycle. Heat storage in this heat sink involves the transient simultaneous laminar film condensation of vapor and melting of an encapsulated phase change material in graphite foam. The key focus of this paper is to numerically analyze this conjugate heat transfer problem including the wall inertia effect and thus verify the effectiveness of the heat storage mechanism of the heat sink. An effective heat capacity formulation is employed for modeling the phase change problem and is solved using the finite element method. The results of the developed model showed that the concept is effective in preventing an undue temperature rise of the system.