Senior Design Project #9
Welcome to the Phase Change Material Transient Heatsink senior design project website!!
This website holds all published data available for the Phase Change Material (PCM) Transient Heatsink project. All deliverables and presentations can be viewed under the deliverables tab and presentations tab, respectively. More information about the team can be found on the group page. Information about the project sponsor can be found on the sponsor page.
Project Overview
The objective of this senior design project was to create a heatsink for power semiconductors used in aviation applications. In order to accommodate transient thermal loading conditions encountered in such applications, the heatsink incorporated a phase change material which acted as a thermal energy capacitor. Once the semiconductor begins its transient phase, the heat from the semiconductor is conducted into the heatsink to prevent it from failure due to overheating. Here. the PCM melts once its melting point is reached, which also allows conduction to the outside wall, leading to the ambient air. When the transient duty cycle finishes, all of the heat stored in the heatsink is conducted to the ambient air allowing for the PCM to resolidify and restart this process once again.
The team successfully accomplished all of the initial objectives given by the sponsor in a timely manner and developed an effective electronics cooling solution. The team also won Second Runner Up on the final presentations for their 2014 Capstone Senior Design Project!!
Project Images
Computational Model of the System
(Click to enlarge)
Prototype Fabrication
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(top left: Manually heating PCM onto heatsink enclosure. top right: Initial assembly of prototype with housing, resistor and thermocouples. bottom left: Setup with Styrofoam cover to simulate adiabatic conditions. bottom right: Final prototype assembly.)