International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407

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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ichmt

Management of electronic board temperature using heat sink containing

pure and microencapsulated phase change materials
Faezeh Rostamian a, Nasrin Etesami a, *, Majid Haghgoo b
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran
b
Iran Space Institute, 1459777511, Tehran, Iran

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In this study, the electronic board temperature management using heat sinks containing pure and micro­
Electronic board cooling encapsulated phase change materials (PCMs) was investigated experimentally. PCMs were selected based on the
Temperature management board critical temperature (80 ◦ C). Effect of heat sink configurations, pure and microencapsulated PCMs, volume
Heat sink
fractions of PCMs, and a wide range of electric power (5-18 W) in two states of fixed and pulsed power was
Phase change materials
Microencapsulated PCM
examined on the board temperature behavior. Results showed that the square 7fins heat sink has the best per­
Heating-cooling cycles formance compared to square 3fins and circular 12fins heat sinks. Duration times to reach the critical temper­
ature for stearic acid, lauric acid, paraffin as pure PCMs, and PX52 and GR42 as commercial microencapsulated
PCMs were 33, 31, 36, 32, and 26 min, respectively. It reveals that PX52 could be a comparable candidate to pure
PCMs. Results showed that the operating time increases with volume fraction of PX52, proportionally.
Consecutive heating-cooling cycles presented that the peak temperature for PX52 after heating range was lower
than that for pure PCMs in the same conditions due to the higher heat transfer rate, although PX52 had less latent
heat. Microencapsulated PCMs with many advantages can be good options to control the temperature of elec­
tronic components.

reliability [1,2]. Recently, a latent heat thermal energy storage system

1. Introduction
Today, due to the development and widespread use of electronic
equipment, it is necessary to improve the heat transfer technology of
electronic devices to ensure that the operation work of electronic com­
ponents is in safe conditions. Because when electronic devices are used,
heat is generated in them, and this heat must be transferred correctly to
manage their temperature. So far, various methods have been intro­
duced for heat transfer and cooling of electronic devices, including
active methods (fan-assisted cooling, spray cooling, jet-impingement
cooling, microchannels) and passive methods (heat sinks, heat pipes,
heat spreaders, phase change materials (PCMs)). The main goal in all
methods is to increase heat transfer. Active cooling technologies may not
be preferred due to issues such as maintenance, noise, and vibrations.
Some of these problems can be avoided by using passive cooling tech­
niques. In passive cooling, heat transfer/dissipation is not assisted by
any external means. The passive cooling system is noise-free and has low
maintenance when compared to active cooling techniques.
Furthermore, passive cooling systems are preferred because of no
parasitic power, quiet operation, less heat dissipation capacity, and
(LHTESS) has received much attention for cooling electronic devices. A
phase change material can absorb and release large amounts of thermal
energy during the liquid-solid phase change process [3]. PCMs are
classified into organic, inorganic, and eutectic materials based on their
chemical structure.
Organic PCMs can be divided into two main subgroups: paraffin and
fatty acids. There are many articles on the application of PCM to store
thermal energy [4–7]. In these studies, different PCM types, thermal/
physical properties, PCM microencapsulation, phase change problems,
system issues, and their applications in various fields are discussed.
In cooling electronic boards by using a PCM-based heat sink, various
parameters such as the number of fins, geometric characteristics, the
orientation of heat sink, the amount of applied electrical power, type of
PCMs, and the volume fraction of PCM can affect the cooling behavior of
the heat sink. Arshad et al. [8] experimentally investigated the effect of
constant heat fluxes in different values (1.6 kW/m2 to 3.2 kW/m2) on
the thermal behavior of paraffin wax as PCM. It was observed that with
increasing input power, the latent heating phase region becomes
shorter. Also, no phase change occurred in the heat flux of 1.6 kW/m2,
which showed that the heat flux of 1.6 kW/m2 was not sufficient for

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: netesami@iut.ac.ir (N. Etesami).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2021.105407

Available online 19 June 2021

0735-1933/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
F. Rostamian et al.
Nomenclature
Cp heat capacity in constant pressure [J/(kg.K)]
k thermal conductivity [W/(m.K)]
ΔH latent heat of fusion (kJ/kg)
Vs total volume of the heat sink (m3)
Vf total volume of fins (m3)
VPCM volume of PCM (m3)
T thermocouples temperature (◦ C)
Tm melting temperature of PCM (◦ C)
R" contact resistance (◦ C.m2/W)
A cross-section area of the heat sink (mm2)
L thickness of heat sink (mm)
V voltage (V)
I current (A)
P input power (W)
q heating power (W)
Greek symbols
ρ density (kg/m3)
ѱ volumetric fraction of PCM
σ uncertainty
paraffin wax melting. In contrast, a rapid changing phase was observed
for the heat flux of 3.2 kW/m2. Hosseinizadeh et al. [9] examined
temperature changes for three constant power values (25, 35, and 45 W)
experimentally and numerically (2D and 3D model) for commercial 80-
RT PCM. The reason for choosing this high power was to remove heat
from the microprocessor by a heat sink containing PCM (microproces­
sors operate at high power). They stated that for high power levels, the
melting rate increases. Therefore, the melting period is shortened, and
the melting process is transferred to a higher temperature.
Qu et al. [10] conducted the experimental work to cool electronic
boards using a parallel hybrid heat sink saturated with solid copper and
pure paraffin wax. The results showed that a lower base temperature of
the heat sink was achieved in metal foam-PCM than the using pure
paraffin. Wei and Malen [11] studied the rate of increase in thermal
conductivity of a system containing PCM combined with high thermal
conductivity composite meshes. They reported that PCMs are suitable to
control generated heat energy and can be used in electronic equipment
with various applications.
A comprehensive study on the performance of heat sink containing
PCM was examined numerically by Nayak et al. [12] by changing the
number of fins (2, 4, and 8fins). They increased the number of fins by
using an equal amount of PCM and constant fin thickness in each
experiment. They found that as the number of fins increased, the base
temperature decreased, but the melting time interval for 8fins was not
different from 2fins significantly. Also, they observed that the greater
the number of fins, the higher the temperature uniformity due to the
better temperature distribution. Saha et al. [13] studied experimentally
and numerically the optimal distribution of fins in the heat sink. They
used 36 and 9pin fins at a volume fraction of 8% of PCM (Eicosane) and
constant power of 4 W. Heat sink with 36pin fins containing PCM was
able to control the board temperature in the lower amount of PCM due to
the availability of a larger thermal conductivity surface. A similar result
was obtained by Gharbi et al. [14].
Pakrouh et al. [15] reported that as the fin height increases, the
performance of the heat sink increases because of an increase in heat
transfer rate. Mahrous [16] also performed an experimental study on a
heat sink containing paraffin wax as PCM and investigated the effect of
the number and arrangement of the fins. The results showed that the
heat sinks included the PCM reduced the peak temperatures. Also,
increasing the number of fins improves heat transfer to PCM. Yang et al.
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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407
[3] theoretically and numerically investigated the heat sink behavior
that contains metal PCM in great thermal shock. The heat sink included
gallium with copper fins, and the various structures of the copper fins
were examined. The results showed that the use of copper is helpful in
conditions of great thermal shock.
Kalbasi and Salimpour [17] conducted a numerical study to increase
the operation time of an electronic device and investigated the effect of
increasing the horizontal fins of heat sink containing PCM. Some other
factors such as the number of chambers in the heat sink, the ratio of the
dimensions of the heat sink, and the amount of PCM were also examined.
They showed that there is an optimal number of fins to reach the desired
situation. Also, they reported that changing the dimensions of the heat
sink did not improve system performance. Wu et al. [18] prepared an
electronic board using an expanded graphite matrix containing paraffin
for heat management of electronic components. They compared it with
an aluminum plate board and a finned aluminum board. They reported
that the graphite matrix containing paraffin had a higher heat storage
capacity, a higher thermal conductivity, and an excellent thermal
management capability of electronic boards and other cooling
applications.
Ali and Arshad [19] studied heat sink with circular pin fins and used
n-eicosane as PCM in this study. An aluminum heat sink with different
configurations and thicknesses with the variable volume fraction of PCM
was used. The results showed that the heat sink with a fin thickness of 3
mm had the most increment in safe operating time. Arshad et al. [20]
analyzed the performance of the cooling system using a heat sink con­
taining paraffin wax to investigate the base temperature of the heat sink.
In this study, the effect of fin thicknesses, volume fractions of PCM, and
various heat fluxes were investigated experimentally. They reported that
the maximum operating time of this system is obtained for square fins
with a thickness of 2 mm and in a volume fraction of 1.0 of PCM. Arshad
et al. [21] also experimentally investigated heat sink performance with
pin fins using n-eicosane and paraffin wax as PCM in 4 different con­
figurations. The results showed that for n-eicosane at a fin thickness of 2
mm, the best heat performance is obtained, while the best performance
for paraffin occurs at a fin thickness of 3 mm. Similar results were pre­
sented by Ali et al. [22]. Ashraf et al. [23] investigated heat sink per­
formance containing PCM with a square and circular configuration.
They used six different types of PCMs with a constant volume fraction of
9%, in the power range of 4 to 8 W. The experiments showed that the
circular configuration had the most efficient result for heat sink con­
taining PCM and the square configuration had the best results for heat
sink without PCM.
Baby and Balaji [24] focused their research on improving the oper­
ating time of the system by using different fins (pin and plate fins) as
thermal conductivity enhancers (TCE). They found that pin fin perfor­
mance in increasing operation time is more than plate-fin in a constant
volume fraction of PCM in the power range of 2 to 7 W. Fok et al. [25]
investigated heat sink behavior with 3 and 6fins and without fin using
eicosane as PCM. They observed that a heat sink with 6fins had shown
the best performance in increasing the operating time due to more heat
transfer surface. Further research was performed experimentally by
Baby and Balaji [26,27] on heat sink containing PCM by changing the
number of fins and the volume fraction of PCM. They studied the per­
formance of heat sink using pin fin with the number of 33, 72, and
120fins for various volume fractions of PCM and reported that 72fins
had the best performance at all power levels (5-8 W). Then the perfor­
mance of the heat sink with PCM (Eicosane) and without PCM was
investigated [28]. In this study [28], three critical temperatures of 42,
47 and 52 ◦ C were considered and the amount of increases in operating
time was measured and reported in all three critical temperatures. Sri­
kanth et al. [29] used a heat sink containing PCM with composite pin
fins and reported that in optimal state, the operating time of the heating
cycle was increased by 5% and the operating time of the cooling cycle
reduced by 12%. Hu et al. [30] investigated the effect of melting point
and volume fraction of PCM on the temperature behavior of a heat sink
F. Rostamian et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407

with pin fins. The results showed that PCM with a higher melting point
provided better control of temperature below the critical temperature.
Increasing the volume fraction of PCM also increased the operating time.
A review of the previous research reveals some limitations in using
PCMs in controlling the temperature of electronic components,
including volume enhancement during the melting process, leakage and
damage to the electronic component. The thermal stability of PCMs in
continuous and long-term usage is also essential. In this study, for the
first time, the possibility of using microencapsulated PCM in controlling
the board temperature is investigated and compared with pure PCMs. In
microencapsulated PCMs, melting and freezing of PCM occurs inside a
shell, so no leakage is observed.
Previous studies also show that paraffin has been used as PCMs for
cooling the electronic board temperature in most research. In this study,
lauric acid (LA) and stearic acid (SA) as fatty acids are used in temper­
ature management due to the advantages of fatty acids such as
compatible melting/freezing behavior, the low supercooling, low vapor
pressure at operating temperature, thermal stability, non-toxicity, easy
access and high ability to store energy [31–36]. Also, the performance of
commercial microencapsulated PCM (PX52 and GR42) is compared with
pure PCMs. Furthermore, most of the research has studied the effect of
the geometric parameters of the heat sink and fins and the behavior of
heat sink in controlling the board temperature under constant electric
power conditions with low power levels (especially in experimental
studies due to limitation in practical). However, many electronic com­
ponents in actual conditions are permanently subjected to heating/
cooling cycles, with on/off periods, so it is necessary to study the com­
ponent's temperature behavior in consecutive cycles using PCMs based
heat sink. Therefore, in this study, in addition to constant power, pulsed
electric power and heating/ cooling cycles of the board at high powers
up to 15 W have been investigated. In the present study, the scenario of
on/off electric power has been selected according to a real electronic
device. In the following, the effect of type of PCM, volume fraction,
applied electric power level, and heat sink configuration on the man­
agement of board temperature in two modes of constant and pulsed
electric power loads are investigated and compared.
The heat sinks used in this research are made of aluminum (Al-
T6–6061) with the specifications mentioned in Table 1, which has 3
different configurations, including square arrangement with7 fins,
square arrangement with 3fins and a special circular arrangement
with12 fins. Fig. 2 shows the configurations and dimensions of the heat
sinks. In each experiment, these heat sinks were filled with different
volume fractions of PCM (The PCMs were pre-melted, then the molten
PCM was poured into the heat sink and was allowed to solidify freely at
ambient temperature for avoiding porosity) and the temperature
behavior of hot plate and the heat sink was investigated. In this study,
several PCM types were used [37,38] that characteristics of them have
been listed in Table 1.
The PCM volume fraction, denoted by ѱ and defined as the ratio of
PCM volume to total heat sink capacity, is calculated through Eq. 1:
VPCM
ѱ= (1)
Vs − Vf
where Vs is the volume of the heat sink, Vf is the volume of the fins, and
VPCM is the volume of PCM.
In the experimental setup, the heat sink was fixed on the hot plate
using a silicone adhesive with high thermal conductivity so that the
generated heat is transferred to the heat sink with the lowest heat
resistance. The hot plate and heat sink were insulated using Teflon with
very low thermal conductivity to prevent heat loss. In order to study the
temperature behavior of the system, seven K-type thermocouples
(temperature range of − 40 to 250 ◦ C) have been used in various posi­
tions of the system such as hot plate, floor, and walls of the heat sink.
The position of the thermocouples is presented in Table 2 and Fig. 3 for
7fins heat sink. In order to have more accuracy in the experiments, four
thermocouples T1 to T4, are used in the hot plate, and the average
temperature of these four thermocouples is reported as the temperature
of the hot plate. Also, T5 to T7 thermocouples are installed inside the
heat sink to analyze the heat sink behavior. The temperatures measured
Table 1
Characteristics of materials used in experiments.

2. Experimental setup Materials Company k (W/ C (kJ/ ΔH (kJ/ Tm ρ(kg/

m.K) kg.K) kg) (◦ C) m3)

Experiments related to cooling the electronic board using the heat Aluminum – 180 963 289 660.4 2700
Stearic Merck 0.173 1.76 191.4 61–67 940
sinks containing PCM are performed through an experimental setup
acid
according to Fig. 1. This setup includes a DC power supply, hot plate Lauric acid Merck 0.147 2.018 182.52 43–45 870
(simulated with the electronic board), K-type thermocouples, heat sink, Paraffin Merck 0.167 2.8 173.6 56–58 900
PCM, temperature data logger, and a computer to read the information PX52 Rubitherm 0.2 2 100 49–53 650
sent from the data logger. GR42 Rubitherm 0.2 2 55 37–43 800

Fig. 1. Experimental setup.

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F. Rostamian et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407

Fig. 2. Types of the heat sink used in experiments, (a) 7fins heat sink, (b) 3fins heat sink, (c) 12fins circular heat sink (all dimensions in mm).

where R′′ is contact resistance, Tavg is the average temperature of T1 to

Table 2
T4, P is the input power of hot plate, A = 50 £ 50 mm2 is the cross-
Location of thermocouples in all three heat sinks.
section area of the heat sink, L = 2 mm is the thickness of heat sink in
Number of thermocouples Location of thermocouple the floor, and K is the thermal conductivity of aluminum heat sink.
T1 to T4 On four different sides of the hot plate Contact resistance for 7fins heat sink in two different powers is reported
T5 Heat sink floor in Table 3.
T6 Heat sink wall (10 mm distance to the floor)
T7 Heat sink wall (20 mm distance to the floor)
3. Uncertainty analysis

In order to investigate the reliability of the measurements, uncer­

tainty analysis is performed on the experimental data. All k-type ther­
mocouples are calibrated in the temperature range of 0–100 ◦ C, with a
standard thermometer and an accuracy of ±0.5 ◦ C.
A standard calibrated multimeter is used for the verification of the
voltage and current. To evaluate the repeatability of the experimental
data, some experiments were repeated at least three times.
The uncertainty in the power measurement (P = VI) can be calcu­
lated as [39]:
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
( )2 ( )
∂P ∂P 2
σP = ± σV + σI (3)
∂V ∂I

Fig. 3. Position of thermocouples in 7fins heat sink. where P is input electric power, V is voltage, and I is electric current.
Based on Eq. (3), the maximum uncertainty for power measurement was
by the thermocouples are recorded and sent to a computer using a data ±3.9%. Also, the maximum uncertainty for the measured parameters is
logger (Simex-MultiCon CMC-99) at an interval time of 1 s. Also, by a reported in Table 4. According to Table 4, the maximum uncertainty for
power supply (Unity DC Power Supply 30 V, 5A), various powers in the
range of 5 to 18 W were applied to the hot plate. Table 3
Total resistance between the hot plate and the heat sink can be Contact resistance between the hot plate and 7fins heat sink.
calculated by Eq. 2: Tavg (◦ C) T5(◦ C) Power (W) R"(◦ C.m2/W)

P Tavg − T5 55.2 50.4 6(no PCM) 0.002

= ′′ L (2) 55.2 50.7 6(55% vol.) 0.0019
A R +K
55.2 47.1 10(no PCM) 0.002
55.2 47.3 10(55% vol.) 0.0019

4
F. Rostamian et al.
Table 4
Accuracy and uncertainty analysis.
Temperature (T) ±0.5◦ C
Voltage (V) ±0.01 V
Current (I) ±0.02 A
Input power (P) ±3.9%
all parameters was less than 5%, which implies the reliability of the
measured data.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Constant power
In this section, heat sink behavior under constant heat load is
investigated, and the effect of various parameters such as PCM type, the
volume fraction of PCM, and different configurations of the heat sink on
controlling the base hot plate temperature as an electronic board are
examined.
4.1.1. Effect of configurations of heat sink without/with PCM
Fig. 4 shows the temperature behavior of hot plate with 7fins heat
sink without PCM during one cycle of heating-cooling in different
powers of 5, 6, 8, 10,15, and18 W. In this experiment, a critical tem­
perature of 80 ◦ C is considered. As shown in Fig. 4, at all powers, the
temperature increases during the time, and with increasing power load,
the temperature rises at a higher rate. It can be concluded by comparing
the slope of the heating section of graphs. Duration time to reach critical
temperature for the powers of 5, 6, 8, 10, 15, and 18 W is 43, 21, 12, 8,
4.5, and 4 min, respectively. Since the temperature of the hot plate at
high powers reaches the critical temperature in a short time, it is
necessary to use PCMs with suitable heat storage capacity and melting
temperature in order to increase the operating time or delay the time to
reach the critical state so that the electronic component is not damaged
during operation.
Similar experiments were performed for a square heat sink with 3fins
and the circular heat sink with 12fins, and temperature-time diagrams
were presented with 7fins in Fig. 5 for electric powers of 5 and 10 W. As
shown in Fig. 5, the time to reach the critical temperature for the power
of 5 and 10 W for square heat sink with 3fins is 30 and 6 min, respec­
tively, and for circular heat sink with 12fins is 39 and 7 min, respec­
tively. However, for 7fins square, these times increase to 43 and 8 min,
respectively.
Comparing three different configurations shows that the best per­
formance is related to a square heat sink with 7fins. It is concluded that
the geometric structure and number of fins can affect the heat transfer
rate. A 7fins heat sink compared with 3fins with the same geometry has
more heat transfer and can be kept the temperature of the hot plate
below the critical temperature for a longer time than the 3fins heat sink.
Fig. 4. Temperature behavior of hot plate with 7fins heat sink without PCM for
different powers.
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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407
Fig. 5. Temperature-time behavior of hot plate without PCM with different
configurations at different powers.
In addition, the circular heat sink with 12fins shows a better heat
transfer rate than the 3fin square heat sink due to more number of fins.
In order to investigate the effect of heat sink configurations in the
presence of PCM on the temperature behavior of the board, three heat
sinks were filled with the same amount of stearic acid and examined at
different electric powers. Similar results obtain for heat sink with and
without PCM in different configurations. The time to reach critical
temperature for different configurations at different powers is illustrated
in Fig. 6. As seen in this figure, the 7fins heat sink has more operating
time than the other two structures.
Fig. 7 shows the transient variation of temperature at different heat
sink points with and without PCM under a complete heating-cooling
cycle with an input power of 6 W. As seen in Fig. 7(a), the maximum
temperature difference occurs between the base temperature (T5) and
the hot plate (average T1 to T4), which is about 5 ◦ C. Based on Table 3,
this temperature difference is mainly due to the contact resistance be­
tween the hot plate and the heat sink. Also, the temperature difference
along the fin height (T5 to T7) is low due to the high conductivity of
aluminum. Fig. 7(b) shows that the presence of PCM in the heat sink
causes a delay time of about 1900 s to reach the critical temperature.
Also, the temperature difference between T5 and Tavg has decreased due
to PCM in sink cells compared to the sink without PCM (Fig. 7(a)). When
the PCM is melted in the sink, free convection heat transfer in the melted
phase enhances compared to the heat sink with air.
4.1.2. Effect of different PCMs
The effect of various PCMs such as paraffin, stearic acid, lauric acid
from fatty acids category and microencapsulated commercial PCMs;
PX52 and GR42 for 7fins heat sink on temperature behavior of hot plate
at different constant power load is shown in Fig. 8. The volume fraction
of PCM was30% for all PCMs. Fig. 8 shows the temperature-time profile
recorded by T1 to T4 on the hot plate as the electronic board. As seen in
Fig. 6. Duration time to reach critical temperature for different configurations
of PCM-based heat sinks at different electric powers.
F. Rostamian et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407

Fig. 7. Transient temperature behavior of 7fins heat sink, (a) without PCM and (b) with PCM (lauric acid) at the power of 6 W.

melted, a post-melting process occurs. Therefore, an increase in tem­

perature is seen due to the absorption of the sensible heat of the liquid
state of PCM. Also, Fig. 8 shows that with increasing power load, the
temperature rises with a higher rate, and the PCM melting period de­
creases. With increasing input power, the rate of energy absorption in
PCM enhances; therefore, the melting process increases, and the melting
duration time decreases.
Fig. 9 compares the effect of different PCMs on delay time to reach
the critical temperature with the non-PCM mode. According to Fig. 9,
the charge of the heat sink with PCM can delay reaching the critical
temperature and increase the safe operating time. Also, paraffin per­
forms better than other PCMs due to its high latent heat and suitable
melting temperature compared to the critical temperature (80 ◦ C).
Although stearic acid has the highest latent heat among the others, it
results in a shorter delay time than paraffin due to the higher melting
point (Table 1). Lauric acid has higher latent heat than paraffin, but the
low melting temperature of lauric acid causes the melting phase to start
earlier, and the melting period reduces. Therefore, the delay time for
reaching critical temperature becomes lower compared to paraffin.
Although both the melting temperature of PCM and its latent heat are
effective parameters, results show that the difference between melting
temperature and critical temperature is a more important factor in a
good PCM choice.
Although the two microencapsulated commercial materials, PX52
and GR42, had less latent heat than the other pure PCMs used in this
study, they performed a significant delay time, especially PX52. PX52
showed acceptable behavior in temperature-time diagrams due to
proper melting temperature (close to paraffin) and higher thermal
conductivity. PX52 has a silica shell, and its thermal conductivity is
higher than other PCMs (Table 1). Fig. 10 illustrates the temperature
changes versus the distance of thermocouples from the heat sink floor
using thermocouples of T5 to T7 for a constant power of 6 W. As shown in

Fig. 8. Temperature behavior of hot plate using a 7fins heat sink containing
various PCMs at different powers for a volume fraction of 30% of PCMs.

Fig. 8, at the beginning of the heating phase, a rapid increase in tem­

perature is observed (sensible heat region). By continuing the heating
process to the system, melting of PCM occurs at the phase change tem­
perature and the temperature remains almost constant at the melting
temperature during the melting time or increases very slowly. The heat
generated in the board in this period is absorbed as latent heat. The high
latent heat of the PCM causes a delay in the time operation, which is
considered an advantage and allows the electronic component to oper­
Fig. 9. Time to reach the critical temperature for different PCMs at 30% vol.
ate for a longer time with safe conditions. After the PCM is completely of PCM.

6
F. Rostamian et al.
Fig. 10. The trend of PCM temperature variations relative to the distance from
the heat sink floor.
Fig. 10, the trend of PX52 temperature variations relative to the distance
from the heat sink floor (as a temperature gradient (dTdx )) is lower than
the other samples. According to Fourier's law (Aq = k dT
dx ), for constant
heat flux, temperature gradient (dTdx ) is proportional to the inverse of
thermal conductivity (1/k). Lauric acid has the lowest thermal con­
ductivity (Table 1), so the temperature gradient for lauric acid is higher
than others. PX52 has the highest thermal conductivity. Therefore, the
temperature gradient for PX52 is less than other PCMs. Obtained results
show that PX52 can be a good candidate to control the temperature of
electronic components because of higher thermal conductivity, no
leakage, no waste of PCM, less volume change, and no damage to the
component during the phase change.
4.1.3. Effect of volume fraction of microencapsulated PCMs
The effect of volume fraction of microencapsulated PX52 on the
temperature behavior of the hot plate with 7fins heat sink was investi­
gated in volume fractions of 15, 30, and 55 vol%, and input powers of 6,
8, and 10 W. It was observed that with increasing power, the melting
duration time of PX52 and the operating time decreased, consequently.
Also, the melting area is extended with the volume fraction of PCM, and
then the operating time increased. The percentage of increase in oper­
ating time for the volume fraction of 55% in comparison to 30 vol% and
15 vol% is 27% and 45%, respectively (Fig. 11). In fact, increasing the
volume fraction of microencapsulated PX52 increased the heat storage
capacity, which caused more delay in responding to the board
temperature.
Similarly, these experiments were performed for paraffin, stearic
acid, and lauric acid, and the results were compared with PX52. As
shown in Fig. 12, the time to reach the critical temperature for paraffin
at all volume percentages is more than in other samples due to its high
latent heat and suitable melting point. Despite the lower enthalpy of
Fig. 11. The effect of volume fraction of microencapsulated PCM, PX52, on hot
plate temperature behavior with using of 7fins heat sink at the power of 8 W.
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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407
Fig. 12. Duration time to reach critical temperatures for different PCMs at
different volume fractions.
PX52 compared to other PCMs, this microencapsulated PCM showed
comparable performance. Therefore, microencapsulated PX52 with ad­
vantages of no leakage and high thermal stability and heat transfer rate
can be used to control the board temperature by selecting appropriate
volume fraction.
4.2. Pulsed electric power and performance of PCM-based heat sink in
controlling the board temperature
In most electronic equipment, the component undergoes specific on-
off periods at certain intervals. In this study, an electronic board used in
electronic space equipment has been simulated as a hot plate so that the
hot plate turns on at the desired power for 10 min and turns off for 80
min. The heating process is performed for 10 min, and after this period,
by turning off the power supply, the cooling process is performed
through natural convection for 80 min, then the cycle is repeated.
To evaluate the cooling performance of the heat sink containing
PCM, the heating-cooling cycles were performed for several consecutive
cycles at 10 W. The temperature-time data is illustrated in Fig. 13 for
microencapsulated PX52 and other pure PCMs in Fig. 14.
As seen in Fig. 13, the temperature peak after 10 min of heating
period reaches 70.5 ◦ C for microencapsulated PX52 in the volume
fraction of 30% and 63 ◦ C for a volume fraction of 55%. More PCM can
absorb more thermal energy during its melting period and causes a
lower temperature at the peak. The repetition of the same heating-
cooling trajectory in consecutive cycles shows that the PX52 has good
thermal behavior, structural and thermal stability, and its performance
in consecutive cycles has not changed. Also, in the cooling cycle, it is
observed that the heat sink with 30 vol% cools to ambient temperature
during 80 min (when the hot plate is off), however for a volume fraction
of 55% due to the presence of more amount of PCM, the duration time of
Fig. 13. Temperature behavior of hot plate with 7fins heat sink containing
microencapsulated PCM, PX52, in 4 consecutive cycles at the power of 10 W in
two different volume fractions.
F. Rostamian et al.
Fig. 14. Temperature behavior of hot plate with 7fins heat sink containing
different PCM in a volume fraction of 55%, in 4 consecutive cycles at the power
of (a) 10 W and (b) 15 W.
the latent cooling has increased. It caused a temperature difference of
1–3 ◦ C in the hot plate compared to the volume fraction of 30%. How­
ever, these minor temperature differences did not affect the overall cy­
clic performance as the microencapsulated PX52 in both volume
fractions provided safe operating conditions for the electronic board and
controlled the operating conditions below the critical temperature
(80 ◦ C).
The transient temperature behavior of pure PCMs (stearic acid, lauric
acid, and paraffin) in consecutive cycles with the same scenario is
illustrated in Fig. 14.
As shown in Fig. 14, the temperature-time diagram for stearic acid
and paraffin is close to each other during the heating cycles due to no
considerable difference between enthalpies and melting temperatures.
The maximum peak temperature for these two PCMs is 65 ◦ C at 10 W
and 76 ◦ C at 15 W, which in both cases was lower than the critical
temperature.
Comparing Figs. 13 with 14(a) shows that the peak temperature of
microencapsulated PX52 is 2 ◦ C lower than stearic acid and paraffin at
the same volume fraction and heat load. Even though the enthalpy of
stearic acid and paraffin is much more than the microencapsulated
sample. It can be due to the silica material as the shell of micro­
encapsulated PCM, which has a higher thermal conductivity than the
organic PCMs and higher surface area of microencapsulated that en­
hances heat transfer rate, consequently. This result is a great advantage
for using microencapsulated PCM in electronic board cooling because it
has no leakage and has acceptable temperature behavior to manage the
board temperature.
Fig. 14(a) shows that lauric acid had a lower melting point than
stearic acid and paraffin. Therefore, lauric acid shows a much lower
peak temperature. However, with the increase in the number of cycles,
this peak temperature has increased about 6 ◦ C. Increment in peak
temperature for Fig. 14(b) reaches 16 ◦ C under 15 W heat load. Due to
the high enthalpy of lauric acid and its low melting point, this PCM
cannot reach ambient temperature (33 ◦ C) during the cooling period (80
min) when the hot plate is off, and in some cooling cycles, the temper­
ature of the PCM is 6 ◦ C higher than ambient temperature. In fact, lauric
acid is still in its latent cooling zone as the next cycle begins (PCM is not
8
International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407
entirely solidified, and some lauric acid is still liquid). The plateau
temperature-time profile at the end of each cooling cycle indicates this
fact. This behavior is further problematic at higher heat loads (Fig. 14
(b)). According to these results, it can be postulated that high enthalpy
and low melting temperature PCM cannot be suitable for this type of
heating-cooling cycle. The PCMs with high melting temperature and
high enthalpies like stearic acid and paraffin will be more successful in
the heating-cooling cycle.
5. Conclusion
In the present study, the cooling of the hot plate simulated with an
electronic board was investigated experimentally by using PCMs-based
heat sinks. Different pure PCMs and microencapsulated PCMs were
used and compared with the heat sink without PCM. The results showed
that PCM selection depends on melting temperature and enthalpy, could
significantly control the board temperature below the critical tempera­
ture, and provides safe performance for the system. Duration time to
reach the critical temperature in the same volume fraction for stearic
acid, lauric acid, paraffin, PX52, and GR42, was 33, 31, 36, 32, and 26
min respectively for 7fin heat sink and 6 W heat load. It is postulated
that PCM with lower difference temperature between melting point and
critical temperature and higher latent heat has better behavior in con­
trolling board temperature. Results showed that microencapsulated
PCM of PX52 could be a good option to control the temperature of
electronic components because of higher thermal conductivity, no
leakage, no waste of PCM, less volume change, and no damage to the
component during the phase change period.
Investigation the effect of volume fraction of microencapsulated
PCM on the temperature behavior of 7fins heat sink in three powers of 6,
8, and 10 W showed that with increasing volume fraction, the melting
area becomes extended, and the safe operating time increases. At the
power of 8 W, the percentage of increase in operating time for the vol­
ume fraction of 55% of PX52 compared to 30 vol% and 15 vol% was
27% and 45%, respectively. Also, it was observed that with increasing
electric power, the melting region of PCM and operating time decreased.
Therefore, the volume fraction of PCM needs to increase with the
increased heat load.
The effect of different heat sink configurations on the temperature
behavior of the system showed that the number of fins and geometry of
sinks has an essential effect on heat transfer rate and heat sink perfor­
mance, consequently.
Experiments of consecutive heating-cooling cycles with a specific
scenario of 10 min of heating and 80 min of cooling showed that the
microencapsulated PX52 as a new PCM candidate in this work had good
thermal stability and good performance in controlling the board tem­
perature. The cyclic behavior of other PCMs used in this study (stearic
acid, lauric acid, and paraffin) showed that thermal conductivity in
addition to the PCM melting temperature and latent heat enthalpy could
have a significant on the temperature-time diagram and board temper­
ature management. Furthermore, the results showed that high enthalpy
and low melting temperature PCM like lauric acid could not be suitable
for the heating-cooling cycle, especially for high electric power and a
short period of cycles.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
The partial financial support from the Iran Space Institute (ISI)
during the research is gratefully acknowledged.
F. Rostamian et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 126 (2021) 105407

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