NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF LAMINAR FORCED CONVECTION IN AN AIR-COOLED HORIZONTAL PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD ASSEMBLY

Abstract

A numerical solution of the steady-state forced convection for air flowing through a horizontally oriented simulated printed circuit board (PCB) assembly under laminar flow condition has been developed. The considered assembly consists of a channel formed by two parallel plates. The upper plate is thermally insulated, whereas the bottom plate is attached with uniformly spaced identical electrically heated square ribs perpendicular to the mean air flow. The bottom plate is used to simulate the PCB, and the ribs with heat generation are used to simulate the electronic components. A second-order upwind scheme is adopted in the calculation and a very fine mesh density is arranged near the obstacle and the channel surface to achieve higher calculation accuracy. Four Nusselt numbers (Nu) are of particular interest in this analysis: local distribution along the rib's surfaces, mean value for individual surfaces of the rib, overall obstacle mean value, and overall PCB mean value between the central lines of two obstacles. The effect of the obstacle size and the separation between two obstacles is discussed systematically.