Enhanced convective air cooling of electronics with multiple printed circuit boards (PCBS) using turbulance generators

Advisors: Pradip Majumdar.Committee members: John Shelton; Kyu Taek Cho.Includes bibliographical references.Includes illustrations.The focus of this research is to perform experimental and computational simulation analysis of a turbulence generator method of increasing convective heat transfer of electronic chips in an electronic device with multiple Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). With this achieved, higher power levels can be used and/or the air flow needed to maintain a given operating temperature can be reduced. The air flow is deflected or disturbed by deflectors or vortex generator elements placed in strategic locations in the air stream. The models are simulated in Star CCM+ CFD software, and experimentally validated using a customized test facility with computer data acquisition system. The experimentation consists of a multi PCB card enclosure being tested with both deflectors and vortex generator elements. All deflector and vortex generator model are 3D-Printed using an SLS printer. The natural convection case showed a minuscule reduction in chip surface temperature with the use of different deflector designs, and a small reduction with the use of vortex generators.M.S. (Master of Science