A computational study of natural convection in an enclosure as applied
to applications in cooling of electronic components is reported. The investigation
is for a configuration consisting of a three by three array of heated protrusions
placed on a vertical substrate. The vertical sidewalls are all insulated,
and the top and bottom walls serve as isothermal heat sinks. A thin layer
at the back of each protrusion is the heat source, where heat is generated
uniformly and volumetrically. The coolant is the flourinert liquid FC75.
The code was first validated with experimental results reported earlier
on the same configuration. The effect of the substrate conductivity, ks
on the heat transfer and fluid flow was then studied for power levels of
0.1 and 0.7 Watts per protrusion. The computations indicate that the effect
of increasing ks is dramatic. The protrusion temperatures
which were found to be nominally steady, were substantially reduced. The
percentage of generated power that is directly conducted to the substrate
increased with an increase in ks. The fluid velocity
field, which was unsteady, was not significantly affected by changes in
ks.
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