Enhanced Forced Convection Heat Dissipation in Power Electronics Systems by Copper Metal Foam

Modern power electronics and electrical systems are very compact. Reliability of operation depends upon effective heat dissipation method. Due to space restriction designing effective heat dissipation system for these devices is challenging for engineers. Efficient cooling method needed for such type of devices for reliable operation. With this objective, experimentation carried out on 40 PPI, 50 PPI, 60 PPI open cell copper metal foam for heat dissipation in forced convection. All the metal foam samples tested with various heater surface temperature and input air velocity to understand thermofluid properties of open cell copper metal foam. Effect of heater surface temperature and input air velocity on various parameters like Reynold number, Nusselt no, solid to fluid convective heat dissipation rate studied in detail. The pore diameter and cell fiber diameter of metal foam affects the convective heat dissipation rate in forced convection. Experimental investigations showed that open cell copper metal foams are the excellent choice for forced convection heat dissipation application for power electronics devices.