STUDY OF HEAT TRANSFER PROCESS

FROM A CIRCUIT BOARD

USING HEAT PIPES
Authors: Joaqun Capablo, Nelson Garcia-Polanco, John Doyle
nelsongarciapolanco@gmail.con / joaquincapablo@gmail.com

2nd September 2013, Imperial College, London, UK

INDEX
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Project Introduction
Studied System with SINDA/FLUINT
Results
Parametrical Analysis
Conclusions

13th UK Heat Transfer Conference, September 2-3, 2013, London UK

1. INTRODUCTION

GREEN KITCHEN PROJECT: Innovative households can help reduce national

energy consumption, not only by improving their energy efficiency, but also by
reducing and reusing the waste produced in terms of heat and water. Marie
Curie Action(Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways)

13th UK Heat Transfer Conference, September 2-3, 2013, London UK

Heat Pipes applications

Efficient transport of concentrated heat

From the space to your kitchen

13th UK Heat Transfer Conference, September 2-3, 2013, London UK

Heat Pipes comparison

Effective thermal conductivity of heat
pipe with that of solid copper and
solid aluminum rods

13th UK Heat Transfer Conference, September 2-3, 2013, London UK

Heat Pipes
Advantages:
-Very high thermal
conductivity
-Accurate temperature
control
-Accurate geometric
control
Peterson (1994)

13th UK Heat Transfer Conference, September 2-3, 2013, London UK

Studied system
1

Heat Generating Elements

Coin
Heat Spreader
Heat Flow
Heat Pipes

Air Cooled Heat Sink

Air Flow

13th UK Heat Transfer Conference, September 2-3, 2013, London UK

2. STUDIED SYSTEM WITH SINDA/FLUINT

SINDA/FLUINT

(www.crtech.com)

Software for analysis, design, simulation, and

optimization of systems involving heat transfer
and fluid flow:
Aerospace
Energy
Electronics
Automotive
Aircraft
HVAC
Petrochemical industries

NASA-standard analyzer for thermal control

systems:
13th UK Heat Transfer Conference, September 2-3, 2013, London UK

Basic Overview of SINDA/FLUINT

MAIN SIMULATORS:
SINDA: Network-style (circuit analogy) thermal simulator
Nodes : Temperature points
Conductors : Heat Flow Routes

FLUINT: Fluid network capabilities

Lumps : Thermodynamic points
Paths : Fluid Flow Passages
Ties : Heat Flow between Solid and Fluid

FR,A
UA

T,C

P,T,V

13th UK Heat Transfer Conference, September 2-3, 2013, London UK

Basic Overview of SINDA/FLUINT

GRAPHICAL INTERFACE:THERMAL DESKTOP
Geometric CAD-based style
Surfaces and solid parts are geometrically modeled.
Data exchange with CAD and structural software.
Good performance for analysis requiring radiation calculations,
contact conductances, heat pipes, TEC devices

Specific module: FloCAD

Fluid Flow Analyzer
Generation of Flow Networks
Calculation of Heat Transfer Factors

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Basic Overview of SINDA/FLUINT

Thermo-Electric Analogy
V
T2

V1

Re Rt

T2-T1= Rt*Q

T1
I

V -V = R *I
2

Energy Balance to each Node:

QConvection Q
Radiation
QConduction
Qext

QS-L

CS*(dT/dt)=QS+QSL
+Qext

13th UK Heat Transfer Conference, September 2-3, 2013, London UK

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Basic Overview of SINDA/FLUINT

Mass Balance to each Lump
MRL2

dM/dt= MRL

MRL1

Energy Balance to each Lump

QS-L
QL2

QL1

(dEi/dt)=QL+QS
L

13th UK Heat Transfer Conference, September 2-3, 2013, London UK

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Basic Overview of SINDA/FLUINT

Basic Flow Data
-Network
Description

-Operation Sequence

Nodes, Conductors,
-Control
Lumps

-Concurrent Logic

What? When?

Initialization, Customizing

Arrays, Spreadsheet

Steady-State, Transient,
Parametric Sweep

Parameters

-Output
Procedures
-User Data

Error Tolerance, Units,

Pre-processing
Fortran LogicDATA Spreadsheet
Relationships
Compiling
OUTPUTS
Post-processing
PLOTS

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Modeling Heat Pipes with

SINDA/FLUINT
A Network-based
Method to model a Heat
Pipe
Constant Conductance Heat Pipes (CCHPs):
Used in the aerospace industry for about three decades for
supporting system-level design analysis.

Extensions possible for modeling:

CCHPs with Non-Condensible Gas (NCG).
Variable Conductance Heat Pipes (VCHPs) with NCG reservoirs.
Planar or Counter-Flow Thermo-Syphons.

Other methods for modeling:

Loop Thermo-Syphons (LTSs).
Loop Heat Pipes (LHPs).
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Modeling Heat Pipes with

SINDA/FLUINT
Common Misconceptions
when modeling a
Heat Pipe
Full two-phase thermo-hydraulic modeling is
required:
It represents a computational overkill in almost all cases

Heat pipes can be represented by solid bars of

high thermal conductivity:
It does not simulate a heat pipess length-independent resistance
It cannot account for difference in film coefficients between
vaporization and condensation
It does not provide information on power-length product QL eff

13th UK Heat Transfer Conference, September 2-3, 2013, London UK

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Modeling Heat Pipes with

SINDA/FLUINT
Typical
System-Level Approach

Network-style conductor fan approach:

All walls nodes are attached directly via linear
conductances/resistances to a single vapor node.
The wall nodes represent the liquid/vapor interface
along each axial segment of length.

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STUDIED SYSTEM
Heat transfer from a circuit board using heat pipes
Q1=10 W
Q2=20 W
Q3=250 W
Q4=50 W

13th UK Heat Transfer Conference, September

Heat Sources Max. Power:

330 W
Coin:
-3 mm thickness
-Copper
Heat Spreader: - 20 mm
thickness
-Aluminum
Heat pipes: -2 Heat Pipes
-Diameter: 10 mm
-Constant conductance
(CCHP)
-Negligible non-condensable
gas (NCG)
-Vaporization Coef.: 8.640
W/m2K
-Condensation Coef.:
132.640 W/m2K
Heat Sink: -4 Channels
-Aluminum
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2-3, 2013, London

UK
-Air flow: 0.05

Effect of geometric discretization

Heat Pipes Grid Refinement: 10 320 nodes
Temperature of Element
3
vs.
Heat pipes nodes
number
3

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STUDIED SYSTEM
Heat transfer from a circuit board using heat pipes

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Results: Evolution of the temperature

Transient analysis:

Circuit Board hottest

point:
-Element 3

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Parametric study
Analyzed Parameters (in steady state):
Heat pipes exchange coefficients:
Vaporization coefficient
Condensation coefficient

Heat load:
Variation of the heat generated by the heat
sources.

Heat pipes configuration

Variation of the length of the heat pipes

13th UK Heat Transfer Conference, September 2-3, 2013, London UK

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Parametric study (I-II)

Heat Pipes exchange coefficients

Vaporization Coefficient: 8.640 W/m2Condensation

K
Coefficient : 132.640 W/m

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Parametric study (III)

Heat Load
Variation of the Heat Generated by the Heat Sources

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Parametric study (IV)

Heat Pipes Configuration
L/L=7.5%

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Conclusions
Temperature distribution and energy
transfer from a circuit board using heat
pipes
Transient Analysis of the studied system
Parametric Study:
Vaporization Coefficient
Condensation Coefficient
Heat Generated by the Heat Sources
Heat Pipes Configuration
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