Development of high-performance cooling structure for PDP TV sets using computational fluid dynamics simulation with heat transfer based on Cartesian grid system

A simple and high-performance ldquomulti-flowrdquo cooling structure for plasma display panel television sets was developed using computational fluid dynamics with heat transfer based on Cartesian grid system. Upward flow induced by natural convection and fans in the conventional cooling structure has mainly contributed to cooling the plasma panel and boards. However, simulation results indicated that shortcut flows between the bottom and rear inlets and fans were formed along the back cover and the flows decreased the mean outlet-air temperature. The bottom and rear inlets were reduced for the multi-flow structure, and top and side inlets were added to directly induce the fresh flow toward the high-temperature regions at the upper area. In addition to the effects of the increased gaps between the base-chassis and boards, simulation and experimental results revealed that the cooling accomplished by the multi-flow structure was superior to that by the conventional structure.