Effective cooling of vertical heat-generating stacks in a cavity with openings

Abstract

Passive (natural convection) and mixed-convection cooling of vertical stacks of heat-generating bodies located inside a cavity with openings for inlet and outlet coolant flow have been investigated numerically. The applicable equations for the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy were applied under laminar, steady-state two-dimensional flow conditions. The solution was obtained using a finite-control-volume approach. Results were obtained for three different stack geometries using different locations of the stack within the cavity and various locations of the inlet and outlet ports. It is demonstrated that passive cooling can be more effective than mixed-convection cooling for certain conditions and that the locations of the inlet and outlet ports relative to the stack position within the cavity have significant influences on the cooling effectiveness for all three geometries.