This experimental study explores the passive cooling of electronic devices using phase change materials (PCM). Pin fins configurations made of aluminium are considered as thermal conductive enhancers and eicosane as the PCM for the study. The experiments are carried out for five different heat fluxes ranging from 1.17 kW/m2 to 2.35 kW/m2 corresponding to a power level of 4 W to 8 W. The effect of number of fins, type of fins and volumes of PCM has been reviewed. It has been observed that the introduction of fins enhances the heat transfer and more elongation in operational time is achieved in case of dual height heat sinks. Also, volume of PCM, number of fins and heat fluxes directly affect in maintaining the device within a favorable temperature range. All the experiments are performed in a temperature controlled room to avoid environment fluctuation.

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In numerical heat transfer analysis, despite the involvement of the finite dimension in the geometries of heat exchanging devices, these dimensions are frequently assumed to be adequately thin and hence neglected for the ease of analysis. But it may be essential to include the finite dimension of the heat transfer equipment which makes the study more realistic. There are numerical reports on fin heat transfer, which involve with and without consideration of the fin-thickness in the flow geometry. But there remains a dearth of literature in which the results of the fin heat transfer obtained from these considerations are compared. In this essence, an attempt has been made to compare the results obtained from a study of numerical heat transfer on a shrouded vertical fin array with and without consideration of fin-thickness in the flow geometry under mixed convection. From the present computations, it is noted that with the consideration of the fin-thickness, there is a possibility of an increase in axial pressure defect by around 45% indicating the requirement of higher pumping power. Again for the chosen range of parameters, overall Nusselt number increases by around 18% as compared to without fin-thickness that may arise due to altered heat transfer coefficient caused by higher velocity over the extended surface to accommodate finite fin dimension. Finally pressure drop and Nusselt number is correlated with the governing parameters including fin-thickness.

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