Optimum Placement of Heated Blocks in Laminar Forced Convection

Improvements in cooling techniques of electronic components are paramount to the continuous increase in the complexity and thermal output of circuit boards. Recent studies show that a uniform distribution of the blocks might not be the optimum choice. In this paper, a parametric study of the different choices for interblock spacing is performed numerically using the finite volume method. Multiple common ratio geometric series were tested as spacing functions between five heated blocks simulating electronic chips. Eight spacing functions were tested at six Reynolds numbers in the range 50-1600. Results show that the simple upstream crowding of blocks decreases the global maximum temperature in the channel by up to 6.83% and significantly reduces the temperature difference between the blocks. This attenuation and uniformity of the maximum temperatures translates into prolonged equipment life at an almost negligible cost.