Accident? Consider the scenario where a designer wishes to incorporate a newly developed device into a system and soon learns that a heat sink is needed to cool the device. The designer finds a rather…read more
Convection and radiation
January 1st, 1998
In last issue’s calculation corner,a simple 1-dimensional conduction calculation was described. This time, we look at the other two basic heat transfer processes, namely convection and radiation. In actual applications with multiple heat sources with…read more
Experimental evaluation of the local convective heat transfer from configurations of wall-mounted cubes in a channel flow
January 1st, 1998
Figure 1: Sketches of the measurement cube. Introduction Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes are frequently used as design tools to predict the thermal processes in electronic circuitry. CFD codes can easily cope with a high…read more
Fan selection – quick techniques to compare various tube-axial fan designs
January 1st, 1998
The worldwide market for tube-axial fans is very large and, as a consequence, the number of tube-axial suppliers is significant. This article will focus on the techniques that can be used to quickly compare various…read more
Measuring fluid velocity in electronic enclosures
January 1st, 1998
Thermal analysis and characterization of electronic systems requires a knowledge of fluid velocity. In pursuit of this information, we often resort to measurement or calculation. The issue of measurement becomes a challenge since we are…read more
The coefficient of thermal expansion
January 1st, 1998
This is the second technical data feature that deals with the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). The first technical data feature, incorporated in the September 1997 issue, covered semiconductor materials, leadframes and solder alloys. This…read more
Thermal management of outdoor enclosures using phase change materials
January 1st, 1998
Telephone equipment has traditionally been housed in large buildings, sheds and outdoor cabinets. The cooling of these facilities has been carried out using traditional methods. However, in many of the new systems being developed and…read more

