Examination of natural convection plumes from partially heated PCB plates and estimation of the heat transfer coefficients

Accurate values of convection heat transfer coefficients are required for the simulation of the thermal characteristics of printed circuit boards. This paper presents the results of experiments carried out using a Schlieren apparatus to examine the natural convection plumes from a horizontally positioned partially heated printed circuit board plate. It has been demonstrated that for a board with a centrally positioned resistor, the convection coefficients may be approximated to two values, one over the heated resistor area and another over the rest of the plate. These observations were then used in an optimization process to estimate the convection coefficients from such surfaces. Values of 4 W/m²K and 13.5 W/m²K were obtained for the resistor and the adjoining unheated sections, respectively. It is concluded that it is not generally satisfactory to assume a uniform value for convection coefficients during thermal simulation of electronic structures. However, a simplifying assumption of two values for convection coefficient appears to be acceptable; the lower value applying in the region of convection plumes and the higher value elsewhere.