THERMAL WAKE EFFECTS IN PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARDS

Abstract

A simple, one-dimensional analytical model is presented that characterizes thermal wake effects for a convection cooled flat plate with discrete, surface mounted isoflux heat sources. Using integral solution techniques, the model predicts the temperature rise induced at downstream locations due to heating of the boundary layer by upstream sources. This analytical solution can be part of a coupled solid-fluid model to quickly and accurately evaluate conjugate heat transfer for air-cooled electronics applications. The thermal wake model is validated using numerical simulations for a wide range of test cases, and the average difference between the numerical results and analytical predictions is less than 2% for all test cases.