The flow modeling approaches employed in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes dedicated to the thermal analysis of electronic equipment are generally not specific for the analysis of forced airflows over populated electronic boards. This limitation has been previously highlighted (Eveloy, V. et al., 2004, IEEE Trans. Compon., Packag., Technol. 27, pp. 268–282), with component junction temperature prediction errors of up to 35% reported. This study evaluates the potential of three candidate low-Reynolds number eddy viscosity turbulence models to improve predictive accuracy. An array of fifteen board-mounted PQFPs is analyzed in a 4 m/s airflow. Using the shear stress transport model, significant improvements in component junction temperature prediction accuracy are obtained relative to the standard high-Reynolds number model, which are attributed to better prediction of both board leading edge heat transfer and component thermal interaction. Such improvements would enable parametric analysis of product thermal performance to be undertaken with greater confidence in the thermal design process, and the generation of more accurate temperature boundary conditions for use in Physics-of-Failure based reliability prediction methods. The case is made for vendors of CFD codes dedicated to the thermal analysis of electronics to consider the adoption of eddy viscosity turbulence models more suited to board-level analysis.
1.
Lall, P., Pecht, M., and Harkim, E., 1997, Influence of Temperature on Microelectronics and System Reliability, CRC Press, New York.
2.
Kirschman
, R. K.
, 1990
, “Low Temperature Electronics
,” IEEE Circuits Devices Mag.
, , 6, Part 2
, pp. 12
–24
.3.
Lasance, C. J. M., 1997, “Status and Challenges in Thermal Design of Electronic Parts and Systems,” Proc. Eurotherm Seminar 58: Thermal Management of Electronic Systems III, edited by Bardon, J. P., Beyne, E., and Saulnier, J. B., Elsevier, Paris, pp. 91–107.
4.
Nakayama, W., 2001, “Emerging New Roles of CFD Simulation in Competitive Market Environment,” Proc. 7th International Workshop on Thermal Investigations of ICs and Systems (THERMINIC), pp. 223–229.
5.
Nakayama, W., 2001, “An Approach to Fast Thermal Design of Compact Electronic Systems: a JSME Project,” Advances in Electronic Packaging; Proc of The PACIFIC RIM/ASME International, Intersociety Electronic Packaging Technical/Business Conf & Exhibition (IPACK’01), Paper No. IPACK2001-15532.
6.
Nakayama
, W.
, Behnia
, M.
, and Soodphakdee
, D.
, 2001
, “A Novel Approach to the Design of Complex Heat Transfer Systems: Portable Computer Design—A Case Study
,” IEEE Trans. Compon., Packag. Technol.
, 24
(2
), pp. 199
–206
.7.
Shapiro, B., 2002, “Creating Reduced-Order Models for Electronic Systems: An Overview and Suggested Use of Existing Model Reduction and Experimental System Verification Tools,” Proc. International Conference on Thermal Challenges in Next Generation Electronic Systems (THERMES 2002), pp. 299–306.
8.
Cullimore, B., 2002, “Nonlinear Programming Applied to Thermal and Fluid Design Optimization,” Proc. 8th Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronics Systems (ITHERM 2002), pp. 54–60.
9.
Parry, J., Bornoff, R., Stehouwer, P., Driessen, L., and Stinstra, E., 2003, “Simulation-Based Design Optimization Methodologies Applied to CFD,” Proc. 19th Annual IEEE Semiconductor Thermal Measurement and Management Symposium (SEMI-THERM XIX), pp. 8–13.
10.
Cullimore, B., 2001, “Dealing With Uncertainties and Variations in Thermal Design,” Proc. IPACK’01: The Pacific Rim/ASME International Electronic Packaging Technical Conference and Exhibition, Paper No. IPACK2001-15516.
11.
Moffat, R. J., 2002, “Getting the Most Out of Your CFD Program,” Proc. 8th Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronics Systems (ITHERM 2002), pp. 9–14.
12.
Minichiello, A., and Belady, C., 2002, “Thermal Design Methodology for Electronic Systems,” Proc. 8th Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronics Systems (ITHERM 2002), pp. 696–704.
13.
Cole
, R.
, Dalton
, T.
, Punch
, J.
, Davies
, M. R.
, and Grimes
, R.
, 2001
, “Forced Convection Board Level Thermal Design Methodology for Electronic Systems
,” ASME J. Electron. Packag.
, 123
(2
), pp. 120
–126
.14.
Pecht
, M.
, 1996
, “Why Traditional Reliability Prediction Models Do Not Work—Is There an Alternative
,” Electronics Cooling
, 2
(1
), pp. 10
–12
.15.
Das
, D.
, 1999
, “Use of Thermal Analysis Information in Avionics Equipment Development
,” Electronics Cooling
, 5
(3
), pp. 28
–34
.16.
Osterman
, M.
, 2001
, “We Still Have A Headache With Arrhenius
,” Electronics Cooling
, 7
(1
), pp. 53
–54
.17.
Dasgupta, A., 2002, “The Physics-of-Failure Approach at the University of Maryland for the Development of Reliable Electronics,” Proc. 3rd International Conference on Thermal and Mechanical Simulation in (Micro)Electronics (EuroSimE), pp. 10–17.
18.
Rodgers
, P.
, Eveloy
, V.
, and Davies
, M.
, 2003
, “An Experimental Assessment of Numerical Predictive Accuracy for Electronic Component Heat Transfer in Forced Convection: Parts I and II
,” ASME J. Electron. Packag.
, 125
(1
), pp. 67
–83
.19.
Rodgers, P., 2000, “An Experimental Assessment of Numerical Predictive Accuracy for Electronic Component Heat Transfer,” Ph.D. Thesis, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
20.
Lasance
, C. J. M.
, 2002
, “The Conceivable Accuracy of Experimental and Numerical Thermal Analyses of Electronic Systems
,” IEEE Trans. Compon., Packag. Technol.
, 25
(3
), pp. 366
–382
.21.
Eveloy
, V.
, Rodgers
, P.
, and Hashmi
, M. S. J.
, 2004
, “Numerical Prediction of Electronic Component Heat Transfer: A Perspective
,” IEEE Trans. Compon., Packag. Technol.
, 27
(2
), pp. 268
–282
.22.
Hutchings
, B.
, and Iannuzzeli
, R.
, 1987
, “Taking the Measure of Fluid Dynamics Software
,” Mech. Eng. (Am. Soc. Mech. Eng.)
, May, pp. 72
–76
.23.
Lau, J., Wong, C. P., Prince, J. L., and Nakayama, W., 1998, Electronic Packaging Design, Materials Process and Reliability, McGraw Hill, New York, pp. 162–165.
24.
Sathe, S. B., and Sammakia, B. G., 1996, “A Numerical Study of the Thermal Performance of a Tape Ball Grid Array (TGBA) Package,” Proc. 31st ASME National Heat Transfer Conference, HTD-Vol. 329, pp. 83–93.
25.
Meinders
, E. J.
, and Hanjalic
, K.
, 1998
, “Experimental Evaluation of the Local Convective Heat Transfer From Configurations of Wall-Mounted Cubes in a Channel Flow
,” Electronics Cooling
, 4
(1
), pp. 34
–38
.26.
Azar
, K.
, and Rodgers
, P.
, 2001
, “Visualization of Air Flows in Electronic Systems
,” Electronics Cooling
, 7
(2
), pp. 26
–33
.27.
Eveloy
, V.
, Rodgers
, P.
, and Hashmi
, M. S. J.
, 2002
, “Application of Experimental Airflow Visualization to Aid the Numerical Modeling of Electronic Component Convective Heat Transfer
,” Int. J. Microcircuits Electron. Packag.
, 25
(3
), pp. 1
–31
.28.
Grimes
, R.
, Davies
, M.
, Punch
, J.
, Dalton
, T.
, and Kehoe
, E.
, 2001
, “Modeling Electronic Cooling Axial Fan Flows
,” ASME J. Electron. Packag.
, 123
(2
), pp. 112
–119
.29.
Baelmans, M., Meyers, J., and Nevelsteen, K., 2003, “Flow Modeling in Air-Cooled Electronic Enclosures,” Proc. 19th Annual IEEE Semiconductor Thermal Measurement and Management Symposium (SEMI-THERM XIX), pp. 27–34.
30.
Schofield
, W. H.
, and Logan
, E.
, 1990
, “Turbulent Shear Flow Over Surface Mounted Obstacles
,” ASME Trans. J. Fluids Eng.
, 112
, pp. 376
–385
.31.
Boyle, M. T., and Asante, K. A., 1990, “Detailed Film Coefficient Measurement of a Simple Large-Scale Semiconductor Package Geometry,” Proc. 6th IEEE Semiconductor Thermal and Temperature Measurement Symposium (SEMI-THERM VI), pp. 89–94.
32.
Meinders, E. R., 1998, “Experimental Study of Heat Transfer in Turbulent Flows Over Wall-Mounted Cubes,” Ph.D. Thesis, Faculty of Applied Physics, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, pp. 19–36.
33.
Cole, R., Dalton, T., Punch, J., Davies, M. R., and Grimes, R., 1999, “A Thermal Design Methodology for Electronic Systems—Part I: Board and Component Level,” Proc. 33rd ASME National Heat Transfer Conference, NHTD99-152.
34.
Saulnier, J. B., 1995, “The Numerical Modelling of Heat Transfer in Electronic Systems: Challenges and Ideas for Answer,” Proc. EUROTHERM Seminar 45: Thermal Management of Electronic Systems II, edited by Beyne, E., Lasance, C. J. M., and Berghmans, J., Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 3–15.
35.
Speziale, C., and So, Ronald M. C., 1998, “Turbulence Modeling and Simulation,” in The Handbook of Fluid Dynamics, edited by Johnson, R. W., CRC Press and Springer, New York, Chap. 14.
36.
Fokkelman, W. F., Meinders, E. R., and Hanjalic, K., 1997, “The Backward-Facing Step Flow in the Transitional Regime,” Proc. EUROTHERM Seminar 58: Thermal Management of Electronic Systems III, edited by Bardon, J. P., Beyne, E., and Saulnier, J. B., Elsevier, Paris, pp. 37–43.
37.
Freitas
, C. J.
, 1995
, “Selected Benchmarks From Commercial CFD Codes
,” ASME Trans. J. Fluids Eng.
, 117
, pp. 208
–218
.38.
Cokljat, D., Kim, S. E., Iaccarino, G., and Durbin, P. A., 2003, “A Comparative Assessment of the V2F Model for Recirculating Flows,” AIAA-2003-0765.
39.
Tucker
, P. G.
, 1997
, “CFD Applied to Electronic Systems: A Review
,” IEEE Trans. Compon., Packag. Manuf. Technol., Part A
, 20
(4
), pp. 518
–529
.40.
Holt, B. R., Ghosh, P., and Wyatt, W. G., 1997, “Thermal Design of Mobile Computers,” Proc. of 32nd ASME National Heat Transfer Conference, HTD-Vol. 343, 5, pp. 9–15.
41.
Remsburg, R., 1998, Advanced Thermal Design of Electronic Equipment, Chapman and Hall, New York, pp. 9–20.
42.
Grimes, R., Kehoe, E., and Davies, M., 2001, “Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Mixed Convection Flow Over a Horizontal Cylinder and a PCB,” Proc. 7th International Workshop on Thermal Investigations of ICs and Microstructures (THERMINIC), pp. 83–86.
43.
Heyerichs
, K.
, and Pollard
, A.
, 1996
, “Heat Transfer in Separated and Impinging Turbulent Flows
,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer
, 39
(12
), pp. 2385
–2400
.44.
Ferziger, J., H., and Peric, M., 1997, Computational Methods for Fluid Dynamics, Springer, Berlin, pp. 276–279.
45.
Deb, P., and Majumdar, P., 1999, “Numerical Investigation of Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer Over Distributed Heated Modules With the Standard k-ε Model and a Low Reynolds Number Model,” Proc. 33rd ASME National Heat Transfer Conference, NHTC99-311.
46.
Hellsten, A., and Rautaheimo, P. (Editors), 1999, Proc. 8th ERCOFTAC/IAHR/COST Workshop on Refined Turbulence Modelling, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.
47.
Lasance, C. J. M., 1994, “Thermal Management of Air-Cooled Electronic Systems: New Challenges for Research,” in Thermal Management of Electronic Systems, Proc. EUROTHERM Seminar 29, edited by Hoogendoorn, C. J., Henkes, R. A. W. M., and Lasance, C. J. M., Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 3–24.
48.
Spalart, P., and Allmaras, S., 1992, “A One-Equation Model for Aerodynamic Flows,” Technical Report AIAA-92-0439, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
49.
Chen
, H. C.
, and Patel
, V. C.
, 1988
, “Near-Wall Turbulence Models for Complex Flows Including Separation
,” AIAA J.
, 26
(6
), pp. 641
–648
.50.
Menter
, F. R.
, 1994
, “Two-Equation Eddy Viscosity Turbulence Models for Engineering Applications
,” AIAA J.
, 32
(8
), pp. 1598
–1605
.51.
Lohan, J., and Davies, M., 1996, “Thermal Interaction Between Electronic Components,” Proc. 31st ASME National Heat Transfer Conference, HTD-329, 7, pp. 73–82.
52.
Eveloy, V., 2003, “An Experimental Assessment of Computational Fluid Dynamics Predictive Accuracy for Electronic Component Operational Temperature,” Ph.D. Thesis, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland.
53.
ICEPAK 4.0 Documentation, 2002, Fluent Inc., 10 Cavendish Court, Labanon, NH 03766, USA.
54.
FLUENT 6.1 Documentation, 2003, Fluent Inc., 10 Cavendish Court, Labanon, NH 03766, USA.
55.
Mathur
, S. R.
, and Murthy
, J. Y.
, 1997
, “A Pressure-Based Method for Unstructured Meshes
,” Numer. Heat Transfer
, 31
, pp. 195
–215
.56.
Kim, S. E., Mathur, S. R., Murthy, J. Y., and Choudhury, D., 1998, “A Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes Solver Using Unstructured Mesh-Based Finite Volume Scheme,” AIAA-Paper 98-0231.
57.
Dhinsa, K., Bailey, C., and Pericleous, K., 2004, “Investigation into the Performance of Turbulence Models for Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer Phenomena in Electronic Applications,” Proc. 20th Annual IEEE Semiconductor Thermal Measurement and Management Symposium (SEMI-THERM XX), pp. 278–285.
58.
Dhinsa, K., Bailey, C., and Pericleous, K., 2004, “Low-Reynolds Number Turbulence Models for Accurate Thermal Simulations of Electronic Components,” Proc. 5th International Conference on Thermal and Mechanical Simulation and Experiments in Micro-Electronics and Micro-Systems (EuroSimE), pp. 483–490.
59.
Madhavan, P., and Joshi, Y., 2002, “Computational Simulations of Server Room Cooling—A Parametric Study,” Proc. 8th International Workshop on Thermal Investigations of ICs and Microstructures (THERMINIC), pp. 277–282.
60.
Wolfshtein
, M.
, 1969
, “The Velocity and Temperature Distribution of One-Dimensional Flow With Turbulence Augmentation and Pressure Gradient
,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer
, 12
, pp. 301
–318
.61.
Launder, B. E., and Spalding, D. B., 1972, Lectures in Mathematical Models of Turbulence, Academic Press, London, England.
62.
Choudhury, D., 1993, “Introduction to the Renormalization Group Method and Turbulence Modeling,” Fluent Inc. Technical Memorandum TM-107.
63.
Wilcox, D. C., 1998, Turbulence Modeling for CFD, DCW Industries, Inc., La Canada, California.
64.
Agonafer
, D.
, and Moffat
, D. F.
, 1990
, “Numerical Modeling of Forced Convection Heat Transfer for Modules Mounted on Circuit Boards
,” ASME J. Electron. Packag.
, 112
, pp. 333
–337
.65.
Launder
, B. E.
, and Spalding
, D. B.
, 1974
, “The Numerical Computation of Turbulent Flows
,” Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng.
, 3
, pp. 269
–289
.66.
FLOTHERM, Version 3.2 Reference and User Manuals, Flomerics Limited, Bridge Road, Hampton Court, Surrey, KT8 9HH, United Kingdom, 2001.
67.
Burgos
, J.
, Manno
, V. P.
, and Azar
, K.
, 1995
, “Achieving Accurate Thermal Characterization Using a CFD Code—A Case Study of Plastic Packages
,” IEEE Trans. Compon., Packag. Manuf. Technol., Part A
, 18
(4
), pp. 732
–738
.68.
Anderson
, A.
, 1997
, “A Comparison of Computational and Experimental Results for Flow and Heat Transfer From an Array of Heated Blocks
,” ASME J. Electron. Packag.
, 119
(1
), pp. 32
–39
.69.
Zahn, B. A., 1998, “Evaluating Thermal Characterization Accuracy Using CFD Codes—A Package Level Benchmark Study of IcePaK and Flotherm,” Proc. 6th Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems, pp. 322–329.
70.
Yang, M. C., 2000, “A Comparison of Using Icepak and Flotherm in Electronic Cooling,” Proc. 7th Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems, Vol. 1, pp. 240–246.
71.
Rosten, H., Parry, Addison, J., Viswanath, R., Davies, M., and Fitzgerald, E., 1995, “Development, Validation and Application of a Thermal Model of a PQFP,” Proc. 45th ECTC, p. 1140.
72.
Chui
, E. H.
, and Raithby
, G. D.
, 1993
, “Computation of Radiant Heat Transfer on a Non-Orthogonal Mesh Using the Finite-Volume Method
,” Numer. Heat Transfer, Part B
, 23
, pp. 269
–288
.73.
Eveloy, V., Rodgers, P., and Lohan, J., 2002, “Comparison of Numerical Predictions and Experimental Measurements for the Transient Thermal Behavior of a Board-Mounted Electronic Component,” Proc. 8th Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronics Systems (ITHERM’02), pp. 36–45.
Copyright © 2005
by ASME
You do not currently have access to this content.
