Application of Structure Functions for the Investigation of Forced Air Cooling

TL;DR

This study uses structure functions derived from transient temperature data to analyze and optimize the cooling process of a power amplifier in a wind tunnel, highlighting the impact of wind speed on heat transfer.

Contribution

It introduces a method for using structure functions to determine circuit model parameters for thermal simulations based on experimental cooling data.

Findings

Wind speed significantly affects heat transfer coefficient.

Structure functions effectively identify thermal parameters.

Cooling curves inform optimal thermal modeling.

Abstract

This paper presents thermal analyses of a power amplifier placed in a wind tunnel. All the investigations are based on the transient temperature measurements performed during the circuit cooling process. The measured cooling curves were used to compute the cumulative and differential structure functions for the circuit with a heat sink. These functions helped to determine the optimal values of circuit model parameters necessary for numerical thermal simulations. The experiments demonstrated the influence of the wind speed on the value of the heat transfer coefficient and consequently on the temperature of the entire structure.