Annals of the Assembly for International Heat Transfer Conference 13

ISBN 1-56700-225-0 / CD 1-56700-226-9

Year 2006

Jaco Dirker
Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

Josua Meyer
University of Pretoria

The use of embedded cooling layers consisting of materials with high thermal conductivities can dramatically reduce peak temperatures within solid-state heat generating mediums. Inversely, such layers can also allow for increases in heat generating densities for a given maximum peak temperature. This is applicable in for instance integrated passive power electronics where power densities are limited by the low thermal conductivities of materials being used. In this paper the thermal performance of embedded cooling layers in three dimensional rectangular heat generating components is investigated numerically for a boundary condition where heat is conducted to the ambient in two orthogonal directions. The allowable increase in heat generation density for fixed maximum peak temperatures is described for a wide range of geometric shape conditions and thermal conductivities of materials present in such composite structures. Correlations are developed for conditions where the thermal resistance is negligible at the internal interfaces of the material layers and externally between the composite component structure and the environment.

CND-03 pages DOI: 10.1615/IHTC13.p27.30 Download article

Article price - $35.00

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