Natural Convection Cooling of Vertical Finned Plates in an Electronic Cabinet

Simulation model for natural convection was applied to determine the temperature distribution in a base plate with rectangular vertical fins. An estimated velocity Vm derived from the buoyancy and pressure drop eqs. in the duct was used for laminar forced convection cooling in parallel plates and circular tubes with uniform wall temperatures. An experimental study was also performed to check these simulation results and they are found to agree well with each other. Then, this simulation method was extended to analyze natural convection cooling of vertical base plates with inclined parallel fins. The convective heat transfer rate for inclined fins was found to be 14% higher than that for vertical fins.