Experimental investigation on nanoalloy enhanced layered perovskite PCM tamped in a tapered triangular heat sink for satellite avionics thermal management

Abstract

Abstract Miniaturization of circuitry has inherently led to higher heat dissipation which has to be controlled to avoid temperature fluctuation ensuring smooth functioning of the system where developments in the field of PCM provides flexible solutions for avionic Thermal Management (TM). This article focuses to analyse thermal performance of novel tapered triangular finned heat sink along with Vacuum Insulation Panels (VIPs) tamped with nanoalloy (n-LMA) enhanced organo-metallic Mn based layered perovskite Solid-Solid PCM (SS-PCM) to its compatibility for passive TM satellite auxiliary system. An inclusion of 5\xa0wt% nanoalloy (Nano-encapsulated liquid Ga:In eutectic alloy) in SS-PCM increased the thermal conductivity by 21.05% (0.374\xa0W/m-K) and charging and discharging enthalpy by 16.84% (74.56\xa0J/g) and 17.61% (76.32\xa0J/g) respectively. Thermo-physical property values were obtained through Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope, Scanning Electron Microscope, Differential Scanning Calorimetry and Laser Flash Apparatus. Transient thermal performance analysis was carried out in tapered triangular finned heat sink with specific duty cycles (600s/5400s, 1200s/4800s and 1800s/4200s) for heat fluxes (2\xa0W, 4\xa0W, 6\xa0W, 8\xa0W and 10\xa0W) and with/without VIP for different aspects of SS-PCM and SS-PCM/n-LMA. The effect of n-LMA influences the enhancement in thermal storage and heat transfer performance attributes with a maximum temperature drop of 6.98% over pure SS-PCM. Experimental study reveals better temperature reduction with a maximum of 53.81% decrement in overall heat sink temperature and VIP manifests unidirectional heat transfer through the heat sink reducing overall spatial temperature variation. Further, numerical validation was performed for obtained results with COMSOL application, demonstrating the suitability for real-time passive TM in satellite avionics space applications.