Numerical investigation of optimal spacing between heat-generating blocks in laminar forced convection

Improvements in electronic components cooling techniques are paramount to the continuous increase in the complexity and thermal output of circuit boards. Recent studies show that the uniform distribution of the blocks might not be the optimum choice. In this paper, a parametric study of the different choices for inter-block 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. Spacing functions are tested for Reynolds numbers in the range 50 to 1600. Results show that the upstream crowding of blocks decreases the global maximum temperature in the channel by about 5.4% and significantly reduce the temperature difference between the blocks. This translates into prolonged equipment life due to the resulting attenuation and uniformity of the maximum temperatures.