Efficiency Improvement in Electronics Cooling

Abstract

Triangular ribs are commonly used to achieve compactness and heat transfer enhancement in many industries including electronics cooling. Locations of the ribs on the inner surfaces of triangular cooling passages can be arranged in various ways. In this type of confined passages, flow separation can generate vortices caused by the ribs and the flow becomes excessively turbulent, engendering heat convection, thermal mixing, vortex interaction and swirling strength. These phenomena can be used to allow an interaction of the flow and thermal fields and to enhance cooling performance. In the present study, the spanwise distance between the ribs in the form of delta-winglet type vortex generators (VGs) on the cooling performance is investigated in detail, considering both global and local flow and thermal fields. A Computational Fluid Dynamics (ANSYS FLUENT) platform is used to perform the calculations. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurements are used to compare the numerical results with the experimental data for the Reynolds number based on the hydraulic diameter of the triangular channel of Re=5000. The optimum spanwise distance between the VGs is determined as 0.88 times the VG length.