Enhanced thermal management of 3D-printed heat sinks with paraffin and low-melting-point alloy for electronic cooling

Efficient thermal management is crucial for the performance and reliability of electronic devices, while low thermal conductivity of organic phase change materials (PCMs) hampers their effectiveness despite high latent heat storage capacity. To overcome this bottleneck, a dual-enhancement strategy is proposed that combines a low-melting-point-alloys (LMPAs) to increase thermal conductivity with a structured porous material (SPM) to facilitate efficient heat transfer. Systematic investigations were conducted on heat sinks filled with paraffin or LMPA under varying heating powers (10 W, 20 W, 30 W) and SPM filling ratios R (0, 0.3, 0.5, and 1). The findings reveal that LMPA-based heat sinks exhibit markedly improved thermal management performance during phase transitions. Notably, at a heating power of 20 W, the maximum temperature difference is reduced by approximately 39.6 °C compared to paraffin-based heat sink. Furthermore, increasing SPM filling ratios significantly augment thermal performance, extending temperature control times by 32%, 74%, and 129% for filling ratios of 0.3, 0.5, and 1 at critical temperature of 60 °C. This synergistic enhancement not only surmounts thermal conductivity limitations of PCMs but also offers a novel solution for advanced thermal management in electronics cooling systems.