An efficient reliability-based design optimization study for PCM-based heat-sink used for cooling electronic devices

Nowadays, development of new technologies requires efficient mechatronic components which needs more sophisticated cooling systems. Furthermore, phase change material (PCM) based heat sinks presents an appropriate technique for electronic devices. Then, the aim of this work is to propose an efficient methodology that determines an optimal design of such a PCM-based cooling system. Despite of the satisfaction of the optimal solution founded by the deterministic design optimization (DDO), the reliability level is not controlled. For this reason, reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) studies were performed. In fact, RBDO approaches aim to find the best compromise between safety and cost by taking into consideration uncertainties for the studied model. Therefore, several methods are studied, such as the optimum safety factor approach and the hybrid method. Yet, the application of these methods is limited only to linear materials. Hence, this study presents an extension in the case of nonlinear materials. In addition, to overcome problems of the classical hybrid approach, a Robust Hybrid Method (RHM) is proposed. A numerical application is used to study the different DDO and RBDO methods. Then, the efficiency of the RHM method for PCM-based heat sinks is verified.