Graphite Foam Thermal Management of a High Packing Density Array of Power Amplifiers

2005 ◽  
Vol 128 (4) ◽  
pp. 456-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. A. Williams ◽  
J. A. Roux

Much focus has been placed on the thermal management of electronics in recent years. An overall reduction in size of electronic components as well as advances in chip technology, leading to ever higher power dissipation, have increased the necessity for innovative cooling designs. While computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software packages have been instrumental in the design of cooling systems, it remains important to validate these CFD predictions through experimentation. The present work focuses on the experimental evaluation of several variations of an air cooled base plate channel design for an array of generic power amplifier modules. In the current study two materials, graphite foam and a microfibrous material, are investigated as mini-heat exchangers to be implemented in the cooling channel of the base plate. Computational simulations have been conducted on some of the proposed designs in order to evaluate certain parameters. Experiments were conducted measuring chip temperatures and the pressure drop across the cooling channel. Effective heat transfer coefficients were also reverse engineered.

2007 ◽  
Vol 129 (4) ◽  
pp. 488-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. A. Williams ◽  
J. A. Roux

The increasing demand for smaller more compact electronic systems as well as the need to handle higher levels of power dissipation has lead to an increase in necessity for more innovative cooling designs. In recent years, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software has been used extensively in the design of thermal control systems for electronics. In many cases, there remains a need for experimental evaluation of cooling systems in order to validate the results of the CFD simulations. The present work investigates several variations of a liquid cooled base plate channel design for an array of generic power amplifier units. Several different channel insert configurations are investigated as miniheat exchangers using both copper fins and graphite foam. Experiments were conducted measuring the chip temperatures as well as the inlet liquid temperature. CFD simulations were also conducted to guide the experimental program. Effective heat transfer coefficients were also reverse-engineered using CFD software and the experimental results.


Author(s):  
Todd M. Bandhauer ◽  
Taylor A. Bevis

The principle limit for achieving higher brightness of laser diode arrays is thermal management. State of the art laser diodes generate heat at fluxes in excess of 1 kW cm−2 on a plane parallel to the light emitting edge. As the laser diode bars are packed closer together, it becomes increasingly difficult to remove large amounts of heat in the diminishing space between neighboring diode bars. Thermal management of these diode arrays using conduction and natural convection is practically impossible, and, therefore, some form of forced convective cooling must be utilized. Cooling large arrays of laser diodes using single-phase convection heat transfer has been investigated for more than two decades by multiple investigators. Unfortunately, either large fluid temperature increases or very high flow velocities must be utilized to reject heat to a single phase fluid, and the practical threshold for single phase convective cooling of laser diodes appears to have been reached. In contrast, liquid-vapor phase change heat transport can occur with a negligible increase in temperature and, due to a high enthalpy of vaporization, at comparatively low mass flow rates. However, there have been no prior investigations at the conditions required for high brightness edge emitting laser diode arrays: >1 kW cm−2 and >10 kW cm−3. In the current investigation, flow boiling heat transfer at heat fluxes up to 1.1 kW cm−2 was studied in a microchannel heat sink with plurality of very small channels (45 × 200 microns) using R134a as the phase change fluid. The high aspect ratio channels (4.4:1) were manufactured using MEMS fabrication techniques, which yielded a large heat transfer surface area to volume ratio in the vicinity of the laser diode. To characterize the heat transfer performance, a test facility was constructed that enabled testing over a range of fluid saturation temperatures (15°C to 25°C). Due to the very small geometric features, significant heat spreading was observed, necessitating numerical methods to determine the average heat transfer coefficient from test data. This technique is crucial to accurately calculate the heat transfer coefficients for the current investigation, and it is shown that the analytical approach used by many previous investigations requires assumptions that are inadequate for the very small dimensions and heat fluxes observed in the present study. During the tests, the calculated outlet vapor quality exceeded 0.6 and the base heat flux reached a maximum of 1.1 kW cm−2. The resulting experimental heat transfer coefficients are found to be as large a 58.1 kW m−2 K−1 with an average uncertainty of ±11.1%, which includes uncertainty from all measured and calculated values, required assumptions, and geometric discretization error from meshing.


Author(s):  
Christian Egger ◽  
Jens von Wolfersdorf ◽  
Martin Schnieder

In this paper a transient method for measuring heat transfer coefficients in internal cooling systems using infrared thermography is applied. The experiments are performed with a two-pass internal cooling channel connected by a 180° bend. The leading edge and the trailing edge consist of trapezoidal and nearly rectangular cross sections, respectively, to achieve an engine-similar configuration. Within the channels rib arrangements are considered for heat transfer enhancement. The test model is made of metallic material. During the experiment the cooling channels are heated by the internal flow. The surface temperature response of the cooling channel walls is measured on the outer surface by infrared thermography. Additionally, fluid temperatures as well as fluid and solid properties are determined for the data analysis. The method for determining the distribution of internal heat transfer coefficients is based on a lumped capacitance approach which considers lateral conduction in the cooling system walls as well as natural convection and radiation heat transfer on the outer surface. Because of time-dependent effects a sensitivity analysis is performed to identify optimal time periods for data analysis. Results are compared with available literature data.


Author(s):  
Vishal Ramesh ◽  
Sandip Mazumder ◽  
Gurpreet Matharu ◽  
Dhaval Vaishnav ◽  
Syed Ali ◽  
...  

A combined Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and experimental approach is presented to determine (calibrate) the external convective heat transfer coefficients (h) around a partially-filled water tank cooled in a climactic chamber. A CFD analysis that includes natural convection in both phases (water and air) was performed using a 2D-axisymmetric tank model with three prescribed average heat transfer coefficients for the top, side and bottom walls of the tank. The commercial CFD code ANSYS-Fluent™, along with User-Defined Functions (UDFs), were utilized to compute and extract temperature vs. time curves at five different thermocouple locations within the tank. The prescribed h values were then altered to match experimentally obtained temperature-time data at the same locations. The calibration was deemed successful when results from the simulations exhibited match with experimental data within ±2°C for all thermocouples. The calibrated h values were finally used in full-scale 3D simulations and compared to the experimental data to test their accuracy. Predicted 3D results were found to agree with experimental results within the error of the calibration, thereby lending credibility to the overall approach.


Author(s):  
Kevin Bennion ◽  
Gilberto Moreno

Thermal management for electric machines (motors/generators) is important as the automotive industry continues to transition to more electrically dominant vehicle propulsion systems. Cooling of the electric machine(s) in some electric vehicle traction drive applications is accomplished by impinging automatic transmission fluid (ATF) jets onto the machine’s copper windings. In this study, we provide the results of experiments characterizing the thermal performance of ATF jets on surfaces representative of windings, using Ford’s Mercon LV ATF. Experiments were carried out at various ATF temperatures and jet velocities to quantify the influence of these parameters on heat transfer coefficients. Fluid temperatures were varied from 50°C to 90°C to encompass potential operating temperatures within an automotive transaxle environment. The jet nozzle velocities were varied from 0.5 to 10 m/s. The experimental ATF heat transfer coefficient results provided in this report are a useful resource for understanding factors that influence the performance of ATF-based cooling systems for electric machines.


2008 ◽  
Vol 130 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley M. Wright ◽  
Yao-Hsien Liu ◽  
Je-Chin Han ◽  
Sanjay Chopra

Heat transfer coefficients are experimentally measured in a rotating cooling channel used to model an internal cooling passage near the trailing edge of a gas turbine blade. The regionally averaged heat transfer coefficients are measured in a wedge-shaped cooling channel (Dh=2.22cm, Ac=7.62cm2). The Reynolds number of the coolant varies from 10,000 to 40,000. By varying the rotational speed of the channel, the rotation number and buoyancy parameter range from 0 to 1.0 and 0 to 3.5, respectively. Significant variation of the heat transfer coefficients in both the spanwise and streamwise directions is apparent. Spanwise variation is the result of the wedge-shaped design, and streamwise variation is the result of the sharp entrance into the channel and the 180deg turn at the outlet of the channel. With the channel rotating at 135° with respect to the direction of rotation, the heat transfer coefficients are enhanced on every surface of the channel. Both the nondimensional rotation number and buoyancy parameter have proven to be excellent parameters to quantify the effect of rotation over the extended ranges achieved in this study.


Author(s):  
Yao-Hsien Liu ◽  
Michael Huh ◽  
Lesley M. Wright ◽  
Je-Chin Han

Heat transfer coefficients are experimentally measured in a rotating cooling channel with slot ejection. This test section is used to model an internal cooling passage near the trailing edge of a gas turbine blade where the spent coolant exhausts through the slot to the mainstream flow. The regionally averaged heat transfer coefficients are measured in a wedge-shaped cooling channel (Dh = 2.22cm, Ac = 7.62cm2). Due to the discharging of coolant through the slots, the local mass flow rate decreases along the streamwise direction. The effect of slot ejection enhances the heat transfer near the narrow side of the channel, while heat transfer on the wide side decreases. The inlet Reynolds number of the coolant varies from 10000 to 40000 and the rotational speeds varies from 0 to 500 rpm. The inlet rotation number is from 0 – 1.0. The local rotation number and buoyancy parameter vary by the rotational speeds and the local Reynolds number in each region. The effect of rotation in this wedge-shaped channel with slot ejection is presented in this paper. This study shows that the rotation number and buoyancy parameter are good parameters to quantify the effect of rotation with slot ejection over the extended ranges achieved in this study.


Author(s):  
Johan Anderson ◽  
Johan Sjöström ◽  
Petra Andersson ◽  
Francine Amon ◽  
Joakim Albrektsson

This paper demonstrates the possibility to predict a battery system's performance in a fire resistance test according to the new amendment of United Nations Regulation No. 100 “Uniform Provisions Concerning the Approval of Vehicles with Regard to Specific Requirements for the Electric Power Train” (R100) based on careful measurements of the physical properties of the casing material, as well as modeling of the battery modules and computer simulations. The methodology of the work consists of estimating the heat transfer coefficients by using a gasoline pool fire model in the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software FireDynamicsSimulator (FDS), followed by finite-element (FE) calculations of the temperatures in the battery


Author(s):  
Hongkoo Roh ◽  
Jungho Kim ◽  
Paul J. Boudreaux

Graphite foams consist of a network of interconnected graphite ligaments and are beginning to be applied to thermal management of electronics. The thermal conductivity of the bulk graphite foam is similar to aluminum, but graphite foam has one-fifth the density of aluminum. This combination of high thermal conductivity and low density results in a specific thermal conductivity about five times higher than that of aluminum, allowing heat to rapidly propagate into the foam. This heat is spread out over the very large surface area within the foam, enabling large amounts of energy to be transferred with relatively low temperature difference. For the purpose of graphite foam thermosyphon design in electronics cooling, various effects such as graphite foam geometry, sub-cooling, working fluid effect, and liquid level were investigated in this study. The best thermal performance was achieved with the large graphite foam, working fluid with the lowest boiling point, a liquid level with the exact height of the graphite foam, and at the lowest sub-cooling temperature.


Author(s):  
Johnathan S. Coursey ◽  
Hongkoo Roh ◽  
Jungho Kim ◽  
Paul J. Boudreaux

Graphite foams have recently been developed at ORNL and are beginning to be applied to thermal management of electronics. These foams consist of a network of interconnected graphite ligaments whose thermal conductivities are up to five times higher than copper. The thermal conductivity of the bulk graphite foam is similar to aluminum, but graphite foam has one-fifth the density of aluminum. This combination of high thermal conductivity and low density results in a thermal diffusivity about four times higher than that of aluminum, allowing heat to rapidly propagate into the foam. This heat is spread out over the very large surface area within the foam, enabling large amounts of energy to be transferred with relatively low temperature difference. The use of graphite foam as the evaporator of a thermosyphon is investigated due to its potential to transfer large amounts of energy without the need for external pumping. A preliminary optimization of the parameters governing evaporator performance is performed using 2-level factorial design. Performance of the system with both PF-5060 and PF-5050 were examined as well as the effects of liquid level and chamber pressure.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document