Investigating the effect of single and hybrid nanoparticles on melting of phase change material in a rectangular enclosure with finite heat source

This article presents two-dimensional (2D) transient numerical simulation and mathematical modeling of a heat sink based on nano-enhanced phase change materials (NePCMs) to study their performance for the cooling of an electronic component. n-eicosane is used as a PCM and Al₂O₃, ZnO, CuO and Cu are used as nanoparticles in NePCMs. An electronic component is mounted in the center of the bottom wall and which an aluminum fin simulating the role of a substrate (motherboard) occupies. The NePCM completely fills the inner part of the heat sink. The NePCM store the heat generated by the protuberant electronic component. The transient regime is numerically performed adopting the finite volume method and the enthalpy-porosity technique. It has been found that the mean heat transfer and the fluid flow structure are closely dependent on the nanoparticles type in NePCM. The addition of single NePCM, with volume fractions of 2% and 4%, decreases the electronic component operating temperature and the latent heat phase duration during which the electronic component operates safely. The hybrid NePCM shows a different behavior by decreasing the electronic component operating temperature and increasing the latent phase duration. Compared to pure PCM, by inserting a volume fraction of 4%-Cu, the electronic component working temperature decreases by 4.69% and the latent heat phase duration decreases by 3.33%. Compared to pure PCM, hybrid nanoparticle insertion of 1%-Al₂O₃ and 3%-Cu showed a 5.77% decrease in the electronic component operating temperature and a 31.11% increase in the latent heat phase duration. By inserting hybrid nanoparticles instead of single nanoparticles, the effective thermal effusivity of NePCM is improved by 10.85%.