Experiment on the thermal management performance of phase change material under vibration environment

In order to study the thermal management performance of phase change material based heat sinks under vibration environment, two heat sinks based on pure stearic acid and stearic acid/foam copper phase change materials were prepared and experimentalized under static and vibrational environments. The experimental results showed that the presence of copper foam can effectively enhance the thermal performance of phase change material based heat sinks. When the heat flux was 5000W/m2, the equilibrium temperature decreased by 19℃ after adding copper foam, and the effective thermal control time was extended by 19.4%. Under the vibration environment, the equilibrium temperature of pure stearic acid test specimen was reduced by 9.5℃, the effective thermal control time was extended by 13.2%, and the effective thermal control time of the stearic acid/foam copper test specimen was extended by 10.5%. Hence forced convection caused by vibration can enhance the thermal performance of phase change material based heat sinks. With respect to the vibration frequency, the amplitude variation had less influence on the result, and in a vibration frequency range, the influence of vibration became larger with the increase of frequency. This study can provide a reference for the application of phase change materials thermal control technology for airborne electronic equipment.