Numerical Analysis of an Advanced Vapor Chamber-Heat Sink Design Embedded with PCM

In recent years, with the increasing heat dissipation of electrical appliances, efficient cooling systems are required to solve the elevated temperature problems encountered in certain interior areas of electrical devices. This paper presents a new advanced proposed vapor chamber design combined a phase change material (PCM) with an extended surface area (fins). The new approach is utilizing water as working fluid, pool boiling employed as evaporation progress, and the copper foam and PCM-HS29P as a thermal storage. In order to investigate the proposed design performance, a numerical model and simulation analysis were conducted to remove 225W of heat generated from an electronic chip sized 2.5x2.5 cm2 and maintain the chip temperature below 70oC for a normal operation. It was determined that when the new design outreaches 225W, the temperature of the chip is just 335.5K. Furthermore, the safety of the chip is increased with PCM used which can transfer 22% more heat input to 275W. Due to the absence of the wick structure fabrication in this approach, it is foreseeable the design cost is reduced as long as the pool boiling is employed as evaporation progress. Results obtained from this study will pave the way that will allow designing an effective new vapor chamber approach.