Thermal Computations for Electronics: Conductive, Radiative, and Convective Air Cooling

by Gordon N. Ellison

Overview

The first edition of Thermal Computations for Electronics: Conductive, Radiative, and Convective Air Cooling was based on the author's lecture notes that he developed over the course of nearly 40 years of thermal design and analysis activity, the last 15 years of which included teaching a university course at the senior undergraduate and graduate levels. The subject material was developed from publications of respected researchers and includes topics and methods original to this author. Numerous students have contributed to both the first and second editions, the latter corrected, sections rewritten (e.g., radiation spatial effects, Green's function properties for thermal spreading, 1-D FEA theory and application), and some new material added.

The flavor and organization of the first edition have been retained, whereby the reader is guided through the analysis process for systems and then components. Important new material has been added regarding altitude effects on forced and buoyancy driven airflow and heat transfer. The first 20% of the book is devoted to the prediction of airflow and well-mixed air temperatures in systems, circuit board channels, and heat sinks, followed by convective (PCB-mounted components included), radiative, and conductive heat transfer and the resultant temperatures in electronic equipment. Detailed application examples illustrate a variety of problems.

Downloads (from the CRC website) include: MathcadTM text examples, exercise solutions (adopting professors only) plus PDF lecture aids (professors only), and a tutorial (Chapter 14) using free FEA software to solve a thermal spreading problem.

This book is a valuable professional resource for self-study and is ideal for use in a course on electronics cooling. It is well-suited for a first course in heat transfer where applications are as important as theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781000047462
Publisher:	CRC Press
Publication date:	05/13/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	404
File size:	24 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Gordon N. Ellison has a BA in Physics from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and an MA in Physics from the University of Southern California (USC). His career in thermal engineering includes twelve years as a Technical Specialist at NCR and eighteen years at Tektronix, Inc., retiring from the latter as a Tektronix Fellow. Over the last fifteen years Ellison has been an independent consultant and has also taught the course, Thermal Analysis for Electronics, at Portland State University, Oregon. He has also designed and written several thermal analysis computer codes.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Thermodynamics of airflow. Airflow I: Forced flow in systems. Airflow II: Forced flow in ducts, extrusions, and pin fin arrays. Airflow III: Buoyancy driven draft. Forced convective heat transfer I: Components. Forced convective heat transfer II: Ducts, extrusions, and pin fin arrays. Natural convection heat transfer I: Plates. Natural convection heat transfer II: Heat sinks. Thermal radiation heat transfer. Conduction I: Basics. Conduction II: Spreading resistance. Additional mathematical methods. Appendix i: Physical properties of dry air at atmospheric pressure. Appendix ii: Radiation emissivity at room temperature. Appendix iii: Thermal conductivity of some common electronic packaging materials. Appendix iv: Some properties of Bessel functions. Appendix v: Some properties of the Dirac delta function. Appendix vi: Fourier coefficients for a rectangular source. Appendix vii: Derivation of the Green’s function properties for the spreading problem of a rectangular source and substrate - method A. Appendix viii: Derivation of the Green’s function properties for the spreading problem of a rectangular source and substrate - method B. Appendix ix: Proof of reciprocity for the steady-state Green’s function. Proof of reciprocity for the three-dimensional, time-dependent Green’s function. Appendix x: Finned surface to flat plate h conversion. Appendix xi: Some conversion factors. Appendix xii: Altitude effects for fan driven airflow and forced convection cooled enclosures.Appendix xiii: Altitude effects for buoyancy driven airflow and natural convection cooled enclosures. Bibliography. Index.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

The material is presented in a practical way, very suitable for engineers and scientists, helping users at all levels to strengthen their grasp of the subject. ... One of its best aspects is the large number of worked examples ... The many problems at the end of each chapter will also make the book attractive for an undergraduate engineering course. ... Those who want to be able to perform their own calculations and make estimates without using a commercially available software package will find this book invaluable. It will help them to understand the relevant thermal mechanisms and save considerable time by solving frequently encountered thermal design problems in real equipment in an efficient manner. ... This is a book well worth owning.

—John J. Shea, in IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine, Jan/Feb 2012, Vol. 28, No. 1

Editorial Reviews

I’ve been amazed with the content of this book, which goes from the basics and teach you the basics principle of heat and thermal, but also give you very practical examples, which really give you a sense of how this works.
I hope that this book can be really useful, especially if you’re interested in looking at cooling. And there are some great knowledge too, to gain from this book, especially if you want to understand not only how to simulate that, but also how to understand the physics behind it in the more natural manner, lets say without necessarily having to compute everything on the computer first.

You can use thermal networks theory, or you can use various things like that, that can help you to get an idea of the temperature into your system without having to compute everything first. And, I think this really helps for engineers who works with thermal.
-Cyprien Rusu, FEA Expert, MIDAS IT

From the Publisher