Study on the natural air cooling of electronic equipment casings: effects of the outlet vent and the power heater locations on the cooling capability

This paper is concerned with the natural cooling of electronic equipment casings. Effects of the size and the location of the outlet vent as well as the relative distance from the outlet vent location to the power heater position on the flow resistance have been investigated experimentally by using a simple model casing simulated for practical natural air cooled electronic equipment casings. The result shows that the mean temperature rise inside the casing increases with increase in the heater input power, but decreases linearly with increase in the vent porosity coefficient in logarithmic coordinates. As the heater approaches the outlet vent, the temperature rise increases linearly in the logarithmic scale. By defining a new dimensionless parameter called the equivalent Reynolds number, involving the Reynolds number and the porosity coefficient, the flow resistance coefficient is found to have a close logarithmic linear correlation, K = k(x)chi(-1.5), with the equivalent Reynolds number. Its validation has been proved by the good agreement with experimental results. The result indicates that the relative distance from the outlet vent to the heat dissipation unit can be considered as a chimney height in the practical engineering design. Although further more detailed validations are needed, a useful correlation between the flow resistance coefficient, the Reynolds number and the porosity coefficient has been presented for the design application of natural cooling electronic casings.