EXPERIMENTAL THERMAL ANALYSIS OF AN INNOVATIVE HEAT SINK COUPLED TO A NANOEMULSION

This work presents some new experimental measurements collected on a very innovative system proposed for electronic cooling. This setup combines a classical heat sink with a latent thermal storage. The storage material used is a phase change nanoemulsion made of water and 5 wt. % RT40HC paraffin wax with 1-octadecanol as nucleating agent (weight fraction 1:10 with respect to PCM) to reduce the supercooling up to 38 % with respect to samples without nucleating agent, while the heat sink is made of copper via 3D printing. The integration between the two components does not interfere with the external air convective heat transfer, as the nanoemulsion is embedded inside the heat sink, which has an internal cavity. The tests analyse the temperature of the component and the nanoemulsion in different locations during the charging and discharging phases at several flow rates. The results compare the behaviour of this innovative system to a system with the same geometry and only water inside. The presence of the latent thermal storage slightly modifies the temperature field.