NUMERICAL STUDY OF NATURAL CONVECTION IN AN ENCLOSURE WITH DISCRETE HEAT SOURCES ON ONE OF ITS VERTICAL WALLS

Abstract

In this study, natural convection in a fluid-filled rectangular enclosure is analyzed using COMSOL© commercial software. The fluid in which natural convection takes place is a dielectric liquid called FC-75. Attached to one of the vertical walls of the enclosure is an array of rectangular protrusions, each representing computer chips mounted on a printed circuit board. The nominal power consumed by each chip is assumed to be 0.35, 1.07, 1.65, and 2.35 W. This corresponds exactly to the values used in the experiments, which were performed once by the author of this study. The results of the experiment and the numerical study are shown as Nusselt numbers vs. Rayleigh numbers, both being the most important dimensionless parameters of natural convection. A comparison of the results has shown that COM-SOL© can achieve reliable results in similar problems, eliminating the need to build expensive experimental set-ups and spending time conducting experiments. The simulation results are aimed to be used in similar designs of electronic circuits in confined spaces. © 2022 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.