Numerical Study of Graphite Foams Saturated with Phase Change Materials in Power System Thermal Management

The latent heat storage unit (LHSU) using phase change material (PCM) is a quite attractive passive thermal management technique. Graphite foam-PCMs composite are very useful especially in electronics cooling system for power system applications due to their high energy to weight ratio and thermal response rate. A numerical study is proposed to investigate and predict the thermal behavior and performance of the LHSU using foam-PCMs. A simulation program based on finite volume approach was developed to evaluate the thermal performance of the LHSU, and the enthalpy porosity method was used to analyze the phase change process of PCMs. A line-by-line solver based on tri-diagonal matrix algorithm has been used to iteratively solve algebraic equations. Several numerical investigations were made to study the impact of the key parameters: foam materials porosity and thermal conductivity, the HTF inlet temperature and mass flow rate, on system thermal behavior and performance during the charging mode. This study provides guidelines for PCM-foam system thermal performance and design in electronics cooling applications.