Design and Performance of Air-Cooled Chassis for Electronic Equipment

A method of cooling certain types of electronic equipment incorporates in the chassis a simple plate-fin heat exchanger, sometimes called a cold plate or cooled chassis. To determine which internal configuration gives most efficient heat transfer, equations for cold plates are developed, and fin density, height, and thickness are varied. The effect on required power, coolant flow rate, and pressure drop is noted, and some conclusions are drawn as to optimum design.