Experimental and numerical investigation of heat dissipation from an electronic component in a closed enclosure

Intensifying electronic component power dissipation levels, shortening product design cycle times, and greater than before requirement for more compact and reliable electronic systems with greater functionality, has heightened the need for thermal design tools that enable accurate solutions to be generated and quickly assessed. The present numerical study aims at developing a computational tool in OpenFOAM that can predict the heat dissipation rate and temperature profile of any electronic component in operation. A suitable computational domain with defined aspect ratio is chosen. For analyzing, “buoyant Boussinesq Simple Foam“ solver available with OpenFOAM is used. It was modified for adapting to the investigation with specified initial and boundary conditions. The experimental setup was made with the dimensions taken up for numerical study. Thermocouples were calibrated and placed in specified locations. For different heat input, the temperatures are noted down at steady state and compared with results from the numerical study.