Changing technologies have led to electronic components being smaller in size with higher output powers. In this study, an experimental investigation is performed on a PCM-assisted heat pipe (HP) with free and forced convection for cooling portable computers. In order to assess the applicability of the proposed design, three different configurations are studied. In the Config. 1 (Configuration 1), there is only a fan as the active cooling method; for the Config. 2, a phase change material (PCM) container is placed into the fins without using any fan; in the Config. 3, the PCM container is located close to the CPU combined with a fan cooling the far end of the heat pipe. Furthermore, the effect of the PCM melting point on the cooling is investigated using two different types of PCMs. Variations in input heat fluxes and fan voltages (fan speed) are effective parameters included in this study. The time it takes to reach critical temperature (CT) decreases with increasing input heat flux. At an input heat flux of 15 W by the addition of forced convection, the maximum temperature does not reach the CT, and by increasing the fan voltage, the steady-state temperature of the central processing unit (CPU) decreases. However, even by using forced convection, the CPU will reach CT at maximum input heat flux (45 W). PCM with a lower MP appears to optimize cooling and helps to reduce the most thermal stresses. The most important point in using PCM with forced convection is the longer time required to reach the steady-state temperature. Furthermore, image processing is performed using the function 2D CV filter in Open-CV to estimate the liquid fraction. Image processing demonstrates that at 15 W in the Config. 2, at the end of 58 min, 34.5 % of the total PCM is melted.

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