Numerical simulation of thermal management with heat sink composites

This paper focuses on thermal management using advanced heat sink composites. The considered composite structures are assembled by M-Pore^® cellular metals matrices and the phase change material: paraffin. The general idea is to use a highly thermal conducting matrix to transfer thermal energy into the composite and then to store thermal energy within the phase change material. Advanced heat sink composite structures may be used for thermal energy storage as well as temperature stabilization of sensitive components. Finite element analysis on the effective thermal properties of the cellular metal is performed. Calculation models are based on computed tomography data in order to capture the complex meso-structure of these materials. Special focus is given to the size of the representative volume and thermal anisotropy. In addition, a recently extended Lattice Monte Carlo method is applied towards the simulation of transient heat transfer accounting for the phase change of the paraffin and temperature dependent material properties.