Experimental investigation of the simultaneous effect of using phase change material/plate-fin heat sink on thermal performance of a power supply unit

•Case α has the best thermal performance.•The use of PCM increases the time it takes for the system to reach a steady temperature.•The solidifying time of PCM is greater than its melting time.•Increasing the number of fins makes the temperature of body and fins of heat sinks closer to each other.•The use of PCM reduces the power consumption of the fan. In this paper, a thermal management system of a personal computer power supply unit (PSU) is experimentally investigated. The simultaneous use of a passive cooling system such as PCM with a fan that is an active cooling system can improve performance and increase the lifetime of the PSU. Three cases with different volume fractions of fins have been fabricated. To investigate the effect of the fan on the thermal performance of the PSU, the experiments carried out at a minimum and maximum fan speed. The chosen PCM for this study, CaCl2.6H2O , is an inorganic salt-hydrate. According to the different operating conditions of the PSU, the input heat fluxes to the heat sink are variable. The results show that with simultaneous of fan/PCM, the average reduction in the steady temperature of the PSU circuit at the minimum and the maximum fan speeds are 12.8 (°C) and 12.4 (°C), respectively. The results indicate that increasing the number of fins does not have a favorable effect on the thermal performance of the PSU. On the other hand, using of a passive cooling system like PCM can be effective in reduction the dimensions and energy consumption of the fan.