Thermally Optimum Spacing of Vertical, Natural Convection Cooled, Parallel Plates

While component dissipation patterns and system operating modes vary widely, many electronic packaging configurations can be modeled by symmetrically or asymmetrically isothermal or isoflux plates. The idealized configurations are amenable to analytic optimization based on maximizing total heat transfer per unit volume or unit primary area. To achieve this anlaytic optimization, however, it is necessary to develop composite relations for the variation of the heat transfer coefficient along the plate surfaces. The mathematical development and verification of such composite relations as well as the formulation and solution of the optimizing equations for the various boundary conditions of interest constitute the core of this presentation.