Forced convection air-cooling of a commercial electronic chassis: an experimental and computational case study

The present study examines the suitability of a combined experimental and computational methodology for system-level electronic packaging thermal design. A 48.3 cm (19 in), twenty-slot, fully populated commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) electronic equipment chassis was studied experimentally and computationally. The experimental program involved detailed component surface temperature measurements for system power levels of 423 and 846 W (21 and 42 W/module) and for volumetric flow rates between 0.05 and 0.14 m/sup 3//s. The experimental configuration was also computationally simulated and the predicted component temperatures agreed well with the experiments. The effects of various baffle configuration designs within the inlet plenum were then computationally analyzed for improved thermal performance. The best configuration based on the model study was experimentally examined and provided maximum surface temperature reduction of 56%.