Abstract

The development of small-sized electronic components requires the design of a small-sized heat sink, which limits the access to the high amount of heat transfer coefficient. In this paper, the use of phase change material is considered to overcome this issue. In this regard, a heat sink with and without the phase change material is numerically designed and the maximum temperature of the base plate is calculated and compared in two cases. The heat sink is assumed to be located on a base plate with different heat fluxes in the range of 2700–15,300 W/m2 and vicinity of a wide range of convective heat transfer coefficients from 1 to 550 W/(m2·K). Comparing the results between heat sink with the phase change material and without it indicates a certain amount of heat transfer coefficient, which, for less than that, the use of the phase change material reduces the base plate temperature, and over it, the phase change material raises the base plate temperature. Also, results show that the design heat transfer coefficient has an inverse relationship with the operating time of the heat sink, so that for long operating times, the use of PCM will be justifiable in the low heat transfer coefficients.