COMPARISON OF THE COOLING PERFORMANCE OF STAGGERED AND IN-LINE ARRAYSOF ELECTRONIC PACKAGES

The cooling performance of in-fine and staggered regular arrays of sim ulated electronic packages is compared for both sparse and dense packa ging configurations. At equal flow rates, staggered arrays exhibit hig her element heat transfer coefficients and friction factors than in-fi ne arrays. Furthermore, an increase in the packaging density of the el ements results in a moderate reduction in the friction factor with neg ligible change in the heat transfer coefficient. However, when perform ance is expressed in terms of heat transfer rate per unit packaging sy stem volume, dense arrays are found to out perform sparse arrays at eq ual flow rate, applied pressure gradient or pumping power. Furthermore , no significant difference in performance is observed between stagger ed and in-fine configurations when they are compared on the basis of e ither equal coolant flow pressure drop or pumping power.