Effect of Component Layout and Geometry on the Flow Distribution in Electronics Circuit Packs

Abstract

An experimental investigation was conducted to study the impact of component layout and geometry on flow distribution on a circuit pack. The experiment was conducted in a water tunnel using aluminum blocks to simulate various electronic components. The experiments were conducted for laminar and onset of transition Reynolds numbers. Diluted ink was used as the flow visualization vehicle. The study looked at flow over single component, multiple component, and fully loaded circuit packs. The study drew a number of conclusions including the flows were highly three dimensional, and location and orientation of components with large aspect ratio will significantly affect circuit pack flow distribution.