THREE-DIMENSIONAL HEAT TRANSFER AND FLUID FLOW ANALYSIS OF ARRAYS OF SQUARE BLOCKS ENCOUNTERED IN ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT

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Abstract
A numerical method has been formulated to analyze the three-dimensional fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of an array of heated square blocks deployed along one wall of a rectangular duct. This configuration simulates the forced-convection cooling of printed circuit boards encountered in electronic equipment. To the authors' knowledge this is the first three-dimensional numerical study of the problem. The numerical methodology involves solving the three-dimensional continuity, momentum, and energy equations with the assumption of periodic fully developed velocity and temperature profiles in the streamwise direction. Results are obtained for laminar flow and for the condition of uniform wall temperature, Computations are performed for a range of Reynolds numbers, for a Prandtl number of 0.7, and for several values of dimensionless geometric parameters characterizing the problem. The results show that there is a decrease in the friction factor and the Nusselt number when compared with the corresponding values obtained from a parallel-plate duct with the assumption of fully developed velocity and temperature profiles. Supplementary computation showed that the friction factor and the Nusselt number can be predicted by two-dimensional models depending on the geometric parameters.